Closer

She was thankful, to herself, for being so caution and a perfectionist. Homura actually thought that maybe Kyoko was right for once, maybe she need to take things easy.

But if Homura didn't followed Madoka for the shopping spree, the unthinkable could have happened. This incident probably could keep the redhead's mouth shut for several days.

They continued running and running, jumping over road blocks and sprinting across the streets, it was something Homura was trained for, but definitely not Madoka. Homura finally slowed down when she noted the girl she was holding onto was running slower and slower and ended up stopping in the middle of the pavement. Homura wanted to urged her to continue running, but after realizing that the men weren't running after them anymore, she halted as well.

When Homura regained her composure, she realized they're both in a park. With a few young adults jogging, a couple of family walking their dogs and a few kids playing with their kite. She felt relaxed for a sudden, until she noticed her hand were still grabbing onto Madoka then she abruptly let go of the contact and stepped away, watching Madoka silently catching her breathe.

Madoka straightened her back, and gave a thumbs up. "You're really good at sports!" She huffed and smiled.

Homura wasn't sure how to react.

Madoka's feet started walking on its own as she made her way to a bench and slumped onto her seat. Homura followed suit and they sat down for a while before Madoka started to speak again.

"I don't know about you, but this is the best shopping spree ever!" Madoka laughed. "To be honest, my father is overseas and would be currently back today evening so I took this opportunity to slip out to buy some clothes. Who knew that this would happen?!"

Homura gave a glance. Of course she knew, and her father knew too... about her sneaky adventures. That was the reason why Madoka's father hired a bodyguard since he knew it was hard to control their daughter's daily movement and locking her in the room seemed to be useless already. Hiring an under-covered bodyguard means she could monitor their daughter, ensuring that she was safe if she actually disobeyed the rules and sneaked out.

"Thank you anyway."

Homura's thoughts snapped as she turned her head towards Madoka. This was her job actually, and she's being paid to do so, so she didn't really needed to be thanked but of course she kept her mouth shut. All she did was to nod and stood up, jabbing her thumb to the nearest taxi-stand. "Wanna go?"

Madoka gave a sheepish smile and nodded. She was about to lift herself from her seat when she winced in pain as she grabbed onto her injured wrist. Homura immediately scurried to Madoka's side and inspect her wounds. It seemed to be bleeding for a while since the blood had already dried. Darn it, why didn't she noticed that?! She must have got the wound when the men pushed her to the ground.

"I'll get some medicines, you should stay here." Homura bit her lips, cursing herself for letting Madoka to be hurt.

"It's fine, I can go home and clean it up." Madoka gave an awkward smile, not really understanding why Homura was making such a big fuss about this wound. She had even worse injuries before, like spraining her knee when she wanted to escape her house through her room window.

"No, that won't do. If the wound is exposed any longer, it might get infected and turned out worse. Just stay here." Homura pat onto Madoka's back. "There should be a bike rental store here that supplies first-aid." She turned and began running.

Madoka stared in amazement, watching Homura's back in awe. She didn't know why but her heart suddenly skipped a beat. It's normal for someone to care about her this way, and it's normal for Homura to care about anyone this way too. But Madoka just didn't know why was she so...so... happy... as if this was a blessing in disguise.

She stared down at her wound. Blessing in disguise... The words struck her for a moment and her chest cringed a little. It was weird. Definitely weird. Madoka looked up and stared at the sky. She knew it, that something that had been bothering her for a while. She just couldn't seem to find a perfect word for it...

"Here, give me your hand."

Madoka blinked as she felt her hand gently being placed on Homura's lap. She seemed to have transformed from her sporty-self to a doctor-self as she skillfully bandaged her hand carefully after applying some medicines. Madoka stared at Homura for a while until she looked up and they made eye contact.

Her cheeks went pink.

"Are you alright, Madoka-san." Homura frowned worriedly and pushed away Madoka's hair from her forehead, carefully leaning her own forehead on hers. Madoka turned even redder and smoke were coming out from her ears, her mouth opening and closing just like a sick goldfish.

"No. you don't seemed to have a fever but your face sure is red. Perhaps the sun is too strong." Homura said to herself as she looked up at the sky with no cloud cover and realized that geography is useful for once wow.

"Pe-Perhaps." Madoka mumbled, bowing her head and staring at the floor as it was made of gold.

Homura looked down, staring curiously at the girl who seemed to be embarrassed about something. Her lips slowly curled up as she watched her for a few more seconds, before thinking about how Kyoko was doing with the other two girls.

"Wow that's so uncool." Kyoko picked up a handful of fries and squashed them into her mouth before sipping onto her coke. "It must be really mean of her right?"

"We thought it was mean but Madoka... she thought it was cool." Sayaka shrugged and ate her burger. "During these few weeks since Akemi-san came to our school, Madoka took a huge interest on her and wanted to be all nice and make friends with her. I have no idea what poison did she give her to make her like this but there's no way I'm still going to let Madoka to be taken away by Akemi-san."

"To be honest, I have no grudge on Akemi-san but she's just acting a bit...cold. It's just hard to talk to her for some reason." Hitomi sighed.

"True true. On the first day I met here, she was so cold even after I tried to break the ice-" Kyoko paused, hoping the other two would understand her joke but she continued when there wasn't a reaction given. "-but she's actually a nice girl deep down in her heart. She have this emotion-control problem that I think only Kami will know who is suitable to make her smile for once."

"You really do know her well, don't you?" Sayaka leaned towards Kyoko as the redhead blinked. "Tell me the real reason why Akemi-san is trying to get close with Madoka."

"Er, you asked me that question for like the sixth time and I already said if I know the answer I would have told you long time ago ya'know!" Kyoko dragged her seat away from Sayaka.

Sayaka eyed Kyoko warily and scoffed, picking up some fries to chew.

Kyoko gulped. That blue-haired girl sure is careful and skeptical. She must be suspecting Homura to be up to something from the start already... Of course, with her being so protective, her actions may seemed weird for the people around the client and they would realize something is amiss.

The redhead leaned forward, giving and inward sigh. She didn't feel like eating all of a sudden, which could only prove that troubles's brewing ahead.

"Sayaka, I knew she doesn't like me all along."

Kyoko sighed, watching Homura continuously changing channel on the TV.

"But I don't care."

Kyoko sighed again. "This isn't about you caring a not. You're just going to make it not just difficult for yourself, but for Madoka too. If Sayaka make use of the friendship she had with Madoka originally and wanted Madoka to end her contact with you forever, she can do it ya' know."

"If that's the case, I'll eliminate Sayaka from Madoka's life because she deserves better."

Kyoko face-palmed. "ERM HELLO? You're now trying to protect her from safety and harm, not to get rid of people that doesn't meant harm to Madoka."

"That Miki Sayaka is-"

"Akemi Homura!"

Homura almost jolted from her seat. Almost.

Kyoko cleared her throat. "True, to even start your mission, you have to make a good impression on her, which you succeeded. The next step is to be close and become her friend, which you have completed without any sweat since Madoka is the one wanting to be friends with you." The redhead narrowed her eyes. "But you're going overboard, on this part."

Homura frowned.

"Friends. That's it. Just. Friends. There's no need for you to become a very good friend, a best friend or even a lover to complete your mission!" Kyoko yelled.

Homura almost blushed. Almost. Thanks to the light from the television screen it helped her to camouflage a little. But Homura snapped. "What do you mean by lovers can you stop-"

"I mean it, Homura." Kyoko snapped back. "You're just going to ruin the mission if you end up falling in love with her."

"As I said-"

"You're just going to hurt yourself, regardless the outcome of the mission. If you succeed, your connection with her are to be cut off. If you failed to protect her, you'll just end up blaming yourself even harder." Kyoko looked away, her lips quivered. "And maybe not just yourself, if she ended up liking you too... can you imagine how devastated if she realize you're a 'friend' to her because this is what you SHOULD do?"

Homura widened her eyes slightly. It was rare to see Kyoko like this, heck she never seen Kyoko being like this before.

Homura lifted the remote and switched off the television. Silently she picked up Madoka's file that she had been reading and adding informations all day all night. She looked through it for a while until her words broke the silence.

"No feelings, just the mission." Homura then closed the document file.

Kyoko raised her head and slowly turned to look at her.

"No empathy, just apathy."

Kyoko bit her lips. She cast a sad look at Homura, noticing how the side of her dark long hair were covering her face, as if she was covering her feelings that were already bottled up from the start.

"Homura-"

"This is the basic rule of a bodyguard."

A.N: THIS IS PLAINLY MIRACLE THAT I UPDATED SO FAST BUT I WANNA DEDICATE THIS FIC TO CASHBANKY CAUSE SHE WAITED WITH ME OUTSIDE THE PIANO ROOM FOR 29 HOURS WHEN SHE CAN STAY AT HOME AT AND POLE DANCE. I ALSO WANT TO DEDICATE THIS STORY TO MY DEDICATED REVIEWERES WHO DEDICATELY STAYED WITH ME AND DEDICATELY REVIEWED MY STORY AND DEDDIECATEYLY LOVE ME AND DIEDIATCALTE SO KIND TO STILL READ THIS STORY OK I DIDECAT YOU.

PS: TO NONSPECIFIC, THANKS FOR POINTING OUT MY MISTAKES! :)