Cafe-Late Evening

Homura's hands softly tapped along the table while Madoka stabbed another forkful through her slice of cake. It took a little bit of convincing, but she'd agreed to another night together after multiple clarifications that there would be no blindfolds or blindfold-like objects involved this time around. Still, the idea of a date with one another was enough to eventually reel her in.

In truth, this wasn't even really intended to be a date, at least not originally. It only sort of became one on its own once the two realized they were alone together for a while. Homura stayed mostly silent, occasionally glancing from the window to the dimly lit city streets beyond, all the while tapping away to an imaginary rhythm.

A shot of breath from Madoka was enough to snap her out of her momentary trance. She had a depressed look strewn across her face, her phone in one hand and her other holding her fork halfway into talking off another piece. Eventually, she settled into leaving the fork wedged in and using the now free hand to rest her forehead into.

"It seems like she's not coming tonight…Apparently it didn't work out like she'd hoped it would."

"How bad was it?" Immediately, she realized she might be prying into something she, frankly, had no business prying into. Saying nothing at all was going to be less than helpful, though.

"Bad enough that she doesn't want to tell me…Just that she needed time to think things over." Madoka sunk her head farther into her hands. "I'll try to talk to her tomorrow…"

Madoka took a deep breath and fell back into her chair, silently venting her frustrations to her friend who was being perfectly reasonable. She knew that, of course, but she wanted to be a little unreasonable sometimes. She fell back into shape, hiding her poorly hidden concern behind a joyous expression.

"Thanks for taking me out here anyways. Didn't mean to bring down the mood like that."

"It's nothing, don't feel bad for being worried. It's admirable."

Madoka's smile brightened a little, but faded back just as quick as it came.

"I shouldn't be burdening you with her problems, though, especially not like this."

"I don't feel burdened, I'm just as-"

Homura quickly rethought her words.

"I'd love to become better friends with her if possible, though-"

She stopped herself again. Best not to burden Madoka with her own problems.

Madoka tilted her head and opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. A few moments of thinking later, she let herself smile again, finally digging into the cake that had been collecting dust in front of her.

"She'll warm up to you eventually. She can be a little stubborn and headstrong, but she'll come through."

"I really hope so."

Homura checked the window again. She thought she might have seen something outside, but it turned out to just be a cat strolling its way along the empty road. The tapping on the table had turned into fiddling with her soul gem ring.

She turned back to see Madoka fixated on the cat as well. If Madoka had been alone, she was sure she would go after it. Not that she could necessarily stop her if she tried right now. As she slowly pressed herself closer and closer to the glass to get a good angle, the cat faded farther and farther into the night. Within a few moments, it was gone.

Madoka momentarily fell back into disappointment.

It was Homura's turn to break the silence again.

"By the way, I wanted to apologize about the night before." Homura hadn't wanted to bring it up, but she'd kept silent about it for too long.

Madoka looked at her like she'd just described a ghost sighting.

"Apologize?" She fell back, trying to hide a laugh while she collected her thoughts. "Homura, that was one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time. It was so unlike you, I barely knew what to think."

Homura was taken aback. She'd fully expected Madoka to silently resent her for trying something so weird, though this was also Madoka, to be fair. Even so, it was a deep comfort to hear it coming from her.

Both of them were red now.

The door chimed behind Homura, but it was only a mother and her son, the latter of which was dancing around in the doorway while the exhausted mother tried to urge him forwards. It was entrancing, in a certain way.

Homura looked back to see Madoka holding her hands over her eyes as she swayed in a wobbling motion and looked around in a panic, laughing through her hands. Homura's face grew even redder.

"...u..um…"

"Oh, is that how it went, now?" Homura felt a hand fall onto her shoulder as if it was made of lead. She really had a thing for coming at the worst of times.

Madoka uncovered her eyes to see a girl resting behind a now completely flushed Homura, smug grin plastered over her face. Homura managed to compose herself.

"Madoka, this is Sakura Kyouko."

She went to respond to the greeting, but Kyouko put up a finger to hold her thought.

"A girl needs to eat." She plainly stated before strolling up to the counter.

"Bottomless pit…" Homura muttered with a bit of a laugh. "Don't worry, she's always like this. You'll get used to her."

Madoka laughed a little. Kyouko reminded her a lot of Sakaya at first glance, but it also felt subtly different. Still, something curious was weighing on her mind.

"Hey-"

Her thought process was interrupted by Kyouko falling back into the empty chair, now carrying a small box of assorted pastries. She tore open the box and stuffed one into her mouth. Any thought Madoka had of asking for one had gone out the window then and there.

"Sho, yoh the one she's en teing me aout." She got out through a mouthful of food. "Neer goen a ook aou befo…kyu…"

Madoka didn't know how to react. Fortunately for her, neither did Homura. The two of them were spiritually joined with one another in this moment, watching the ferocious figure wolf down pastry after pastry. It was an impressive feat, and all Madoka could do was look down at her measly slice of cake.

"Ah o on inish ah?"

Madoka instinctively dug back into it, not daring to make eye contact. Kyouko shrugged before gorging on the last of the pastries, setting the box aside and darting her eyes between the two of them, both still in disbelief.

"I will never understand how you can eat so much so fast…how did you even get in here, anyways?"

"The door?" She responded sarcastically. "What, did you think I crawled in through the window or something?" Homura dropped the question.

"So, enough about me, how are you two lovebirds doing?"

Both of them grew silent, both finding anywhere to look aside from directly at each other. Kyouko's grin only got wider.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Kyouko pulled an open box of Pocky from her jacket's pocket, pulling one out and waving the end between the two of them before stuffing it down her throat.

Kyouko shifted the subject.

"You know, I saw the craziest thing on my way here, thought you might get a kick out of it"

The two curiously leaned in closer.

"So, here I am walking along the road, not a soul in sight, when I hear someone screaming. Now, you'd think that would be a red flag to get out as fast as possible, but it wasn't a scared scream, more…excited."

"Like if you just won the lottery?" Madoka asked.

"Something like that, but not exactly. Anyways, as I'm getting closer, I see this girl just…swinging her arms around, grunting and laughing, like she's trying to punch a ghost. I move to leave, but then she says something that REALLY catches my attention. Do you know what it was?"

Neither of them had any ideas.

"I may have misheard, but I'm pretty sure she said 'die witch' before plunging forwards. Maybe we're rubbing off on others more than we think. We may someday even have a rival faction, perhaps."

Both of them stared at her with confusion, but it didn't take long to put the pieces together.

"Blue hair, uniform?" Homura asked.

"Outside the hospital?" Madoka added.

"Y..yeah, do you know her?"

"Sayaka Miki, she was supposed to be with us tonight."

"Wait, HER? Didn't Mami say…" Kyouko struggled to keep herself in check. "Well, that changes a lot…"

"N-now, hold on, let's not jump to conclusions here." Homura insisted. "We don't know if she's truly interested"

"I don't think someone who's 'not interested' would be shouting "die witch" into the dark. Still, it probably WOULD be in our best interests to at least talk to her."

Madoka sunk her head back into her hands. "I don't think this is something we can just casually ask about…Sayaka, what happened…"

Kyouko fell back into her seat, pulling out another Pocky stick along with her phone. "Well, I'll let Mami know about her anyways. She's actually pretty excited about both of you, so hurry up and make your wish, will ya?"

"I-I will, I just want my wish to feel like it means something. I'd hate to waste it on something I didn't actually want."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to come across that way, but don't worry, I get it." She had intended to come off more playfully, but tact wasn't exactly her strong suit. "In any case, we can save this conversation for later."

"But you, on the other hand…" Kyouko turned to face Homura, who seemed to anticipate this. "How could you throw away my master plan like that? You were so close!"

Madoka looked between the two, Homura slowly backing away as she nervously laughed, Kyouko fiercely following her movements. The aura between them was startling, and could probably kill anything that dared to approach.

"Wait, is this about the blindfold?"

"Yes, exactly!" Kyouko cried out, now rushing towards her far more excitedly than she expected and giving Homura a small chance to breathe. "Do you think someone like her could come up with such a masterful idea like that herself?"

Kyouko dramatically stepped back, throwing her hand over her face. If there was a spotlight anywhere, now was the time to use it. There was no spotlight, though, unless you counted the small bulb above her head. Their newfound audience didn't know they bought tickets to a surprise performance, nor did the cafe know they were putting one on. Kyouko ignored them.

"It was all supposed to go so perfectly…You give her the blindfold, bring her to a nice cafe, buy her a romantic treat, some flowers-"

"H-hey, you never said anything about flowers-" Homura interjected.

"SOME FLOWERS" Kyouko continued. "You tell her about that whole senses thing you were going on about, and then lean in…"

Madoka thought to say something, but was too busy mentally collapsing at the thought of being given a bouquet of flowers from Homura. She didn't know if she could even survive something like that.

Homura interjected again. "The floor was slippery!"

Kyouko once again ignored her.

"Come on, it's like you have no class." The air in the room had completely shifted, with many quietly laughing and trying to look away from the table.

"And you call me the unbelievable one…"

A/N: Thank you all for the support, I've been having a lot of fun doing this again.

I also figured out that the reason I took such a long break on this was that I wrote a chapter originally that I ended up not being happy with, and I thought for some reason that I'd ended up publishing it anyways. Turns out I didn't.

That said, I'm liking the direction this ended up going, and I don't think past me would've had the same idea. So, I guess it was somewhat for the better.

Anyways, see you in the next one.