Author's Note: I hope you're all ready for a marathon! I promised shipping would get way out of hand, and this is where it finally gets its mack on. Enjoy...

That weekend…

I wake up on Saturday morning, and decide to take a shower instead of a bath. I'm meeting the rest of the club to go swimsuit shopping. Again, sure. And I already have a lot. But you can never have too many. And they wear out fast. Chlorine works hell on lycra. Everyone keeps saying I should try polyester or nylon ones instead, but they don't feel the same. Nylon's heavy, and it feels like it tries to keep the water away from me. I don't like that. And polyester is kind of abrasive. I can't relax in it, and it's not tight enough for me. And even it was, it's not a good place to be wearing abrasive clothing. But I shower, because I'm more likely to get out in time than if I take a bath, and I take my pick of which swimsuit to wear. I feel like there could be water around today, so I like to be prepared. Even though we're shopping for swim gear. I guess that's a bit weird, but that's how I work, and I'm not changing just for the hell of a change.

So I've put together my outfit. And it felt different than normal. Normally, I just pull out whatever's on the top of my cupboard, take one look over it to just make sure I won't look like a total fool, and then put it on. But today, I considered carefully what I should be wearing. All my clothes are blue, black or white, so colour wasn't the issue. But should I wear a jumper, even though it's summer and it's hot enough as it stands? Should I wear a singlet, and then an open-buttoned shirt over the top? Or maybe just a straightforward T-shirt-pants getup? But my point is, today I actually thought about it. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because Rin's around.

I shake my head to clear thoughts like that. Today's just a get-together between friends, no more, no less. I walk out the door, and see Makoto waiting already at the foot of the stairs. "Why do always wait for me? We're going to the same place." I sound annoyed, but I'm happy to see him there.

He hums for a little bit. "You've got a point. But it's more fun going there with both of us, don't you think?"

I smile slightly, trying not to betray my agreement. "I guess so."

And so we walk on, towards the train station, not to catch a train to the store but first to meet the other four. They all live further away, so they'd all have to catch the train anyway, so instead of leaving someone stranded alone at the centre for however-long, we decided to meet at the station first and catch the train together. It really is more fun together. But, right now, Makoto's quieter than usual.

"Makoto? You're being quiet. Are you feeling okay?" I automatically assume something's wrong. But it's not really an assumption. I just know.

"Hmm? Am I?" He's being even more absent than usual. I thought blondes were supposed to be airheads. Nagisa certainly is. "Well, it's nothing. Just… doing some thinking, is all."

"You sure?" He smiles in response, and it looks like he said something, but a train roars past, having just stopped at the station I hadn't realised we'd gotten to, and it steals his words away. And in exchange, it left behind a single passenger. Wearing a black button-up shirt, the first three undone, collar hanging around like a mess is Rin.

"Yo, Rin!" Makoto calls out to him, and he jog up to the platform. "Where's everyone else?"

"Apparently, they had a few other plans. Gou needs a few new outfits or something, and Nagisa was fangirling over some new release from an idol singer." He half-scoffs, half-smiles at the frivolity of it. "So they've hung us out to dry and gone to do their own thing."

I sit down casually next to Rin and I have to make a concerted effort to stay stoic. I can't show off what I'm thinking right now. Makoto might still be around, but aside from that, this could practically be a date with Rin. Why does that thought get me so excited? Why don't I care that Makoto's there too?

"Haru? You in there?" It sounds like Rin's talking to me, but if I answer, I might let my secret spill, so I just pretend not to hear. "Oh, God. He's having one of those moments." I guess he knows it's just an act. "Makoto, read his mind for me, will you?"

Makoto takes the spot on the other side of me, and I let my mind run away with me for a moment. Here's me, wrapped in on both sides by the two best choices for a partner in human history, and I can't pick. Is that luck or unlucky? Option number 1 stares at me, trying to figure out what's going on in my head, while Option 2 stares at him, waiting for answer. Eventually, Makoto sits back, looking kind of tired. Actually, more like… resigned.

"Don't know."

As if Makoto couldn't tell what Haru was thinking. Those two practically share a brain. So either they're having a fight, or Makoto didn't want to say. Well, either way, it's none of my business, so I'll just stay out of it. The train whistles its stop, and we get off, just as we planned. Here by 10:15. We have plenty of time to look in plenty of different stores. Although, search me if I know what exactly we're looking for. My suit's polyester, so it holds up really well. I think Makoto's is as well, and even though Haru only wears lycra, he has a million already, and they're all exactly the same.

Whatever. It's a good excuse to spend time with friends. And Gou's proof to me that we need to do that. Like hell she was sick on Tuesday. She just didn't want to see us being all friendly and leaving her behind. So she can go ahead and go out with Rei and Nagisa – they're good kids, and I know they won't make moves on her (although I wouldn't mind if Rei made moves on me). I'm her older brother, so it's my duty to protect her from boyfriends (taking them on myself is a valid tactic). She's getting to be the right age, but she's a little bit young yet. Unless it's the right person. They'll need my approval first, make no mistake.

But anyway, here we are, shopping for swim gear. I don't really need anything new, but I like to have a couple of extra pairs of goggles behind me in case things go wrong – my habit of snapping them at the back of my head isn't good for the cord, so they break pretty fast. I've only got the pair I'm using at the moment, so I head straight over to my section, waving off Haru and Makoto as I do. "I need new goggles. Go over and check out the suits, I'll be over soon."

I know the ones I like. And it takes me no time at all to find them. I check the price, and they're on sale. So I grab, one, two, three pairs, just to play it safe. 6000 yen. Maybe a bit steep for one sale, but now that I'm away from boarding school, our family has a bit more money to swing around. I meet the other two at the change rooms, and sure enough, Haru's picked out another identical swimsuit – just shy of knee length, black lycra, some violent lines going around places. This one's pattern is a little bit awkward. It sorts of tapers up the inside of each leg, across the bridge of the suit and up around the inside of the hip joints, highlighting all the little details in the region.

"Really, Haru? It's exactly the same."

He shies away, trying to find an excuse. "It fits differently."

"I agree," Makoto chirps. Wait, what? "This one's a little tighter around your hips than most of your others, and seems to loosen up a fair bit as you go down. Am I right?"

Haru's as taken aback as I am. "Yeah. You can tell?"

"Well, maybe a little." Makoto laughs, smiles and reaches one arm behind his head. And blushes, hard.

Makoto can tell? What? I strain my eyes, searching for the stupid little details that make this stupid swimsuit special. And I come up blank. It looks exactly the same. I look back and forward between them, trying to figure out how exactly that conversation came to pass. And I see Makoto blushing furiously, turning away to try and hide it. Good luck - you're practically glowing, mate. And I see Haru blushing, not furiously, but cutely. Like he's embarrassed that his swimsuit-tightness theory was cracked. I guess these two are closer than I thought. But, if it's like that, why can't they look at each other?

"Oh, well. Makoto, are you buying anything? Because if we're done here, we can probably go and catch a movie." I walk over to the counter, beckoning them to follow me. And they do, and we each walk out with our new purchases. Makoto got a new swimsuit, too, but it looks like it's just a clone of his current one.

We walk over to the cinema, and look at the airing schedule. There aren't many movies on, but most of them start in the next half-hour. "Well, it's decision time, even if the field's a little narrow. What are watching?"

"How about The Rebellion Story? The last one in the series of movies for Madoka Magica? I've heard it's really good."

"Ehh? You're into mahou shoujou, Makoto?"

"Not really. Ran wanted me to watch the original show with her, but it got too scary for her. She was only six or so at the time. But I liked it a fair bit, and I hear good things about this movie."

"No. There's not enough water in it."

"Come on, Haru. None of these movies are about water. You watched The Rat's Life with Nagisa a few months back, didn't you? It had nothing to do with water!"

"Nagisa wanted to. I was just tagging along."

I have to supress a laugh at the way these two bicker. It is exactly like an old married couple. "Well, if not that, then what, Haru? Which movie would you have us watch?"

He just grunts in response. "Fine then. Let's get tickets, and then we can go the supermarket to get food. It's cheaper than buying from the theatre."

Makoto and I exchange a look and then just laugh. "Let's go, then."

There's not really any line, so we just walk right up to the booth and ask for three tickets to the 11:30 showing of The Rebellion Story. The seller looks a little taken aback – three guys like us surely aren't the target audience for a movie like that? I get the feeling she makes more than a few judgements, and the feeling that not all of them are strictly wrong. It's still 11:10, so we jog quickly to a supermarket/convenience store hybrid-thing that's not too far away. Haru was right – for the price of a tiny can – as in, about 5 minutes worth of moisture – at the cinema, you can actually buy a drink large enough to last the entire length of the movie. To say nothing of snacks. Not only are they cheaper, but there's a better choice here.

We each choose drinks first – Haru just gets a bottle of water, and Makoto nags him a little (just a little, I swear) about choosing such a boring drink, picking out an orange-flavoured soft drink for himself. I run the selection once-over with my eyes, and I struggle a little to make up my mind. In the end, I can't decide, so I go and pick out three smaller bottles – one with water, one with the same drink as Makoto, and a third with some generic-brand cola.

We walk over to look through the choices we have for food – this could take a little while.

"There's no mackerel here."

Makoto just sighs and drops his head into his palm. "You're not supposed to take mackerel into movies, Haru."

"Really? I normally do."

I tune out their conversation briefly, trying to decide between the sweet and savoury choices. Sweets won't last as long, but they taste better. Anything savoury sort of isn't appropriate for a movie, though. It's a tough decision. So I remain undecided, and again pick one of each, but in smaller proportions. A bag of chocolates – just random little lumps with random fillings on the inside (the promise of a surprise each time makes it somewhat more interesting), and a bag of potato chips. Ham flavoured. Now that I say like that in my head, it sounds weird. Potatoes taste good by themselves, so it's odd that we go to so much trouble cutting them up and whatever just to make them taste like something different. But whatever. Haru couldn't find any mackerel, so instead he has two tins of pineapple. Makoto got the same bag of chocolates I did, but larger.

"We ready? By the time we get back there, the movie should be starting."

"I've got everything I want." Makoto makes his way over to the counter to pay.

"I wanted mackerel, but this'll do." Haru noncommittally follows him, and I tag onto the back of the line.

"This had better be a good movie, Makoto," I observe, somewhat loudly. "Did you see the way the ticket woman looked at us?"

"No. What about it?"

"We're watching a movie targeted at six-year-old girls. We're eighteen. Oh, well, I am. You two are still seventeen, right?"

Haru nods. "Not for much longer though. My birthday's at the end of the month."

"That's not the point, anyway. We're seventeen-eighteen year old guys. And even though they say this movie is a bit mature for kids, we're still guys. We look like we're on some three-way date or something."

They both swallow. Again. And I nearly laugh. Surely, at least once before, they've been mistaken for being on a date.

Haru's in the middle of us – I'm on his left and Rin his right, the movie's started and it's weird. Weird as. There's only, like, ten characters who have faces, and if I remember right, the yellow's one pet… thing was the witch that killed her in the TV show. This movie's not turning out to be what it was cracked up to be, so far. But I'll admit, this fight scene is pretty cool. There's stuff blowing up left and right, and then un-blowing-up. I don't really get how it worked, but the sequence was cool. It looks like they're fighting a set of disembodied hands – they call it a Nightmare. And they manage to force it into a little jar. And then they start singing some freaky song about a cake. It doesn't sound like it's meant to be creepy, but it is. I shiver a little, and eat a handful of my bite-size chocolate-bomb-things in search of comfort. Instinctively, my arms tense up a little, and I accidentally end up grabbing Haru's hand. I catch sight of myself, and relax, gesturing my apology to Haru. Or trying to. He's grabbed my hand back, and he's not letting it go. Why? No way is he scared. Oh, well. Do I really care? Here's me holding hands with my dream and all I can do is ask why. I smile, turn my eyes back to the screen, and keep watching.

And it strikes me how much the five girls on the screen are like us. I am the raspberry, the round cake is red. Sayaka, the blue one. She's like Nagisa, in a lot of ways. She's a ditz on the surface (as in, raspberries are red, so she could still be the cake), but when it comes down to it, she's there for you.

I'm the apple, Bebe likes the round cake. Kyouko, the red one. She's a lot like Rin. She cares a lot for the world around her, but doesn't really know how to show it. She's getting better, though, just like he is.

I'm the cheese. The round cake rolls. Mami, the yellow one. That's her name. She reminds me of Rei. She uses those ribbons in out-there ways no-one would think of, and she seems really smart. Just like Rei and his theories and his beauty.

I'm the pumpkin. The round cake is sweet. Homura Akemi, the time traveller. Her name I didn't forget. Not so much the pumpkin comment, but she reminds me a lot of Haru, sometimes. She can be so emotionless, but she still harbours so many feelings. Maybe she should have been the mackerel.

I'm the melon. If the melon breaks, there will be a sweet dream. Madoka, the lead character. Well, not so much anymore. I felt like she and I had a lot in common. She seems to scare easily, but she only wants people to be happy. I like to think I'm like that, anyway. I want my own happiness first, though. Maybe I'm just selfish.

Tonight's dream is bitter. On top of the plate is the cat's dream. I wonder, if I broke, would a sweet dream be inside? At least the relay problem would be solved.

It's fat and round, so let's eat! Suddenly, a gigantic black demon worm with teeth like knives spurts out of the cute little pink thing they're calling Bebe, and the Nightmare erupts into a cake, covered in raspberries and apples and pumpkins and cheese and melons, and one eats the other. I scream, louder than I realise, and my hand, intertwined with Haru's, squeezes tight shut.

"Makoto… you're hurting my hand." He says it quietly. Quietly enough that I'm not sure if Rin heard or not.

"Sorry, Haru." I release my grip a little. "I need to go to the bathroom. But if I go alone, I feel like one of those worm things is going to jump out of the wall at me. Could you tag along?" I smile, imploringly.

"Sure. There's no water in this movie anyway." He turns to Rin, and whispers that we're off the bathroom quickly.

"Be fast about it. I'll die if someone sees me here watching a mahou shoujou movie by myself."

So we hurriedly pack ourselves up, and Haru takes a piece of pineapple out of the can he's opened and eats it on the way. We go in, and he decides that while he's here he may as well clear out the pipes just so he doesn't have to at a high point in the movie. There might be a puddle in the next scene. I laugh to myself. That weird quirkiness is one my favourite things about him. I finish up first, and stand by the door, waiting for him. He comes out, and washes his hands. I walk over to stand behind him.

"Thanks, Haru. I know it's stupid that it gets to me so much, but I can't help it."

"It doesn't matter. Let's go back. Rin's waiting."

"Right." I close my eyes for the first couple of steps towards the door. Bad move. There's a puddle I didn't notice on the floor, and I slip over in it, taking Haru with me, pinning him to floor. And we wind up folded through each other in the oddest position I could have asked for. The oddest, and the sexiest.

And I wish that I was Homura instead of Madoka. I wish I was Homura so I could stop time and just leave this moment hanging in the air forever. Our faces closer than ever, my arms spread outside his shoulders, our legs locked together, like a mackerel and a melon. And I wonder, if Homura was here, twisted into Madoka like this, what would she do? I think she'd do the same thing I'm about to.

Haru opens his mouth, probably to ask me to get off him, but I have no intention of doing that just yet. I bend my arms, and our faces get even closer, so close that I can smell the pineapple on his breath. And before he can make a sound, I force his mouth closed with mine, and lock it there, freezing this moment in time until we're ready for it to go.