Work Text:
“So, when did you two start dating?”
Kyouko’s eyes shot wide open and she immediately broke into a coughing fit as she nearly choked on the cake she’d shoveled into her mouth just moments before Mami had spoken. Beside her, Sayaka hurriedly gulped down her tea, the look on her face telling the story of a girl who was just as mortified and confused as Kyouko was.
“Excuse me?!” Sayaka blurted out, turning her wide-eyed gaze toward her accuser.
Mami donned a polite, innocent smile. “I’m happy for you two,” she insisted, seemingly oblivious to just how ridiculous she sounded; Kyouko couldn’t pin down whether or not she was putting on a façade. “I’d love to know when you two got together!”
Sayaka glanced over at Kyouko, shaking her head emphatically. “Her and I? Absolutely not. That’s not… a thing.”
Finally managing to swallow her food, Kyouko took the opportunity to interject. “Did you get dropped on the head or something? Sayaka and I are barely… she’s not even my friend! ”
With a small chuckle, Mami shook her head slightly. “Really, you don’t have to pretend.” She turned her eyes to Sayaka. “I have… different beliefs than Hitomi.” Mami took a long sip from her teacup, glancing between her two companions with a knowing twinkle in her eyes.
“I mean it!” Kyouko shouted, slamming her hands on the table. “We’re not… like that, come on!” Feeling her cheeks beginning to redden for some reason, Kyouko quickly sat back down, folding her arms and tossing her gaze away from the other two and out the window. “Who’s Hitomi, anyway?”
Sayaka winced. “She’s a friend of Madoka and I… I don’t want to get into it.”
“Eh, fair enough.” Kyouko shrugged. “I’m not gonna pry you for stuff I don’t care about.”
There was a beat of silence, enough time for Kyouko to return to her tea and begin to let her guard back down, when Mami set her cup down on its platter and cleared her throat. “With that in mind, I’d like to ask again. When did you two confess your feelings for one another?”
“Oh for the love of—” Kyouko made a motion to slam her teacup down on the table, but caught herself just in time. The last time she’d done such a thing she’d gotten more than an earful from Mami. “What gives you the idea that we’re…” she groaned, growing increasingly agitated. “All she does is piss me off, come on!”
Sayaka nodded emphatically. “I’m not even into girls!” She loudly insisted, though second-guessed herself the moment her words left her lips. “Or I don’t think so, anyway…”
Mami uttered a sly chuckle, taking another sip of her tea. “Is that why it’s been so rare to find the two of you apart recently? You simply can’t stand one another?”
Kyouko opened her mouth with the intention of a retort, but found herself unable to reply. Come to think of it, she had been spending a lot of time with Sayaka those last couple of weeks.
“We’re magical girls!” Sayaka explained. “We fight well together, plus there’s strength in numbers and all that! Besides, somebody’s gotta keep an eye on Kyouko and keep her from getting in trouble.” She gestured over to her with a dismissive wave.
“Hey, what the hell’s that s’posed to mean?!” Kyouko demanded.
Mami raised her hands, motioning at both girls to sit back down. “Let’s calm down, I apologise for prying. There’s no need to be upset, let’s just consider this conversation… food for thought.”
Kyouko scoffed and folded her arms, turning away her head. “Whatever.”
Uttering a disgruntled sigh, Sayaka pushed herself away from the table and rose to her feet. “It’s getting late, I should head home. I’ll keep in touch.”
Mami nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
“Hey, Kyouko, you’re sleeping at my place tonight, yeah?”
Kyouko flinched, “Well don’t say it like that! Mami’s already got all sorts of ideas, you don’t need to—”
“I’ve said my part,” Mami interrupted, “and you don’t need to justify your living situation to me, Kyouko. That said, I can get a cot ready for you if you don’t feel comfortable going with her.”
“Tch, nah.” Kyouko shook her head, standing up. “Your place is too cozy, I can’t stand it.”
The walk over to Sayaka’s place was a frosty one in both senses of the word. It was a rather cold night, and Kyouko’s companion wasn’t as much of a chatterbox as she normally was. Kyouko didn’t really mind too much; After all, she was used to all those long nights alone back in Kazamino City, so she resorted back to her old habits of casual people-watching as the two of them walked, occasionally glancing down at her Soul Gem just in case.
It was an uneventful night, all things considered, maybe even a little boring, but Kyouko had learned not to complain so long as she had food in her belly. Of course, it couldn’t hurt to have an extra Grief Seed or two, but her Soul Gem remained stubbornly dim throughout the journey. Kyouko frowned, tucking her Soul Gem way into the pocket of her hoodie and whistling a short tune.
After a while, Kyouko decided to toss a glance over in Sayaka’s direction and took note of Sayaka’s oddly tense demeanor; She was walking with robotically stiff legs, her shoulders were tense, and she held her hands straight to her sides, her hands balled into fists. Naturally, Kyouko didn’t care, or rather, she didn’t want to care, but though she tried to simply shrug off whatever was clearly on her companion’s mind, it irked her just enough that she had to talk about it.
“Everything alright over there?” She asked in a tentative tone.
“Huh?” Sayaka’s head jerked up and she turned her head sharply over to Sayaka, looking as if she’d just been called on in class for a question she didn’t know the answer to. “Oh, yeah… I’m fine, don’t worry about it.”
“Hmm, ‘kay,” Kyouko replied flatly, mostly satisfied by the answer, and content to return to the quiet walk to Sayaka’s home.
Unlike Kyouko, though, Sayaka was terrible at leaving well enough alone and she was quick to pipe back up after a few seconds. “Do you think we act like a couple?”
Kyouko stopped dead in her tracks, narrowing her eyes. “What the hell kinda question is that?!”
“Come on!” Sayaka threw her hands up into the air. “Mami thought the two of us were, you know, together! What the heck do you think Madoka or Homura think?!”
“Why would I care? They can think whatever they want so long as they don’t start pesterin’ me about it.”
“Well, I do!” Sayaka let out a heavy, exasperated sight. “I don’t want them to think that I… you know…”
“That you would stoop to being with a girl as loud and rude as I am?” Kyouko barked out a laugh.
“Yes!” Sayaka yelled. “Er… no, that’s not what I meant, come on, you know what I mean!”
Kyouko began to utter another short chuckle, but it was quick to fade. “I… don’t, actually,” she realised. “What’s got you so worked up about people thinking we’re a couple anyway? What’s it matter to you?”
Sayaka hummed and hawed for a moment. “It means, you know…”
“No, I don’t. Can you stop playing word games already and just come out and say it?!”
“I’m trying!”
“Well, try harder!” Kyouko ran over and attacked Sayaka with a playful shove.
Sayaka immediately retaliated with a more powerful shove of her own. “I am! Do you think I like being all confused about this?!”
Kyouko returned in kind, delivering just enough force to make Sayaka stumble but not enough to topple her. “What the hell’s so confusing about it?!”
This time, Sayaka didn’t counterattack, her eyes fell to the ground between the two of them, and rubbed her arm nervously. “I just…”
“Let me say it this way. Do you think we act like we’re girlfriends or somethin’?”
Sayaka hesitated, and despite how dark it was getting, Kyouko could tell her cheeks had turned a hue of pink that was rapidly turning into a hot shade of red.
Kyouko blinked. “You’re messing with me.”
“I mean… I wish!” Sayaka sputtered out a dry laugh, shyly retreating into herself.
“Okay, come on. Seriously, think about it. You’re the hopeless romantic or whatever, you spent so long drooling over that Kyousuke boy. How’s a couple act like to you?” As much as Kyouko was hesitant to admit it, she could feel her own cheeks start to burn, and she promptly turned her head away so Sayak couldn’t look.
“I mean, you know… walking home together, sharing food, laughing at one another’s jokes. Standing up for one another, protecting each other from danger. A couple would spend more time together than they would with any other people in their lives, right? Heck, we’ve even been sleeping under the same roof these last couple weeks, come on!”
Kyouko hesitated, wanting to come up with some smug, belligerent retort, but the truth of Sayaka’s words hit her before she could manage any such thing. “Oh, my god,” she mumbled, burying her face in her hands.
“Yeah, you see it now?”
Kyouko groaned loudly. “Yeah, I do.”
Sayaka fidgeted anxiously in place, unable or unwilling to meet Kyouko in the eyes.
“So what do we do about this, huh?” Kyouko curled an eyebrow and folded her arms.
“Well…” Sayaka’s voice drifted off.
Kyouko blinked, waiting for Sayaka to continue speaking, but when she didn’t, it soon became apparent to Kyouko what she was actually saying. “No! Absolutely not!” Kyouko reeled in horror at the very idea of it.
“I mean—”
“I would sooner pack up all my things and take the first train back to Kazamino than do that!”
An unfamiliar expression crossed Sayaka’s face. She looked somewhat frustrated, maybe a little angry, but mostly… hurt? “Would you really?”
“I…” Kyouko caught herself in a lie, and breathed it out as a sigh instead. “No, not really. But come on, we can’t stand each other! We’d be terrible together!”
“Would we be?” Sayaka questioned, looking like she was asking herself just as much as she was asking Kyouko. “I’m really not sure. I mean, we’ve already been making a good pair in a way, right?”
“Tch, I mean I guess so, but…” Kyouko began to pace in circles. “Whatever, this doesn’t matter. Couples are supposed to be in love or something!”
“Well, I don’t know…” Sayaka mumbled something under her breath. “I mean, I don’t feel about you the same way I did Kyousuke, but…”
“But?” Kyouko’s arms fell back to her side and she felt her face heating up again.
“But, okay, when I think of being with Mami or Madoka I kinda feel like that’s crazy, I’d never want that, obviously! I can’t even picture myself being happy with them, but with you, I kinda think… ‘hey, couldn’t hurt to give it a shot at least.’ I guess what I’m saying is that I’d be willing to try it out…” Sayaka donned a warm smile for a moment, but it was quick to fade back into an expression of embarrassment and shame. “If you were interested, I mean.”
Kyouko took a moment to mull it over in her head. “Sure.” She shrugged.
Sayaka blinked, “R-really? Sure?”
“What, you want a flowery declaration of love from the top of a hill or some crap?” Kyouko scoffed.
“No, it’s just that you barely took any time to think about it!” Sayaka spoke quickly, visibly starting to panic. “Come on, if you need a bit more time to make certain, it’s oka—”
Kyouko rolled her eyes, already sick of Sayaka’s worrying. Acting purely on instinct, she reached forward, grabbing Sayaka by the collar of her uniform and pulling her into a forceful kiss, holding her there for a few brief seconds before letting her go. “I’m sure, idiot. Now stop second guessing yourself or I’m dumping you on the spot.”
Sayaka let out something akin to a whine, entirely dumbfounded by Kyouko’s advance, but managed to put herself back together rather quickly. She looked down at the ruffled collar of her shirt and brushed her hands over it to smooth it out, then suddenly drove a fierce punch into Kyouko’s stomach without warning.
“Ow!” Kyouko stumbled backward. “Hey, what the hell was that for?!”
“You’ll mess up my uniform if you do that, you jerk!”
“Oh yeah?” Kyouko cackled defiantly. “I’ll do what I want! You won’t stop me.”
“What makes you think that?” Sayaka challenged.
“The fact that I’m your girlfriend, duh!”