Chapter Text
Darkness tumbled and rolled around her like rushing water. Mami gasped as the world churned, pushing her to and fro, threatening to knock her off her feet — though she couldn't be certain she was standing at all. She thought she could see shapes — people, maybe, through the gaps in the darkness as it twisted and coiled in the air around her. She thought she could see…
"Kyouko!" Mami managed to force the words out of her mouth past the choking shadows. The redhead was walking — running? — away. Mami reached out, but through the thick, heavy darkness, it was clear neither her hand nor her voice would reach her student. Her friend. Her sister. Despair tugged at her heart as Kyouko moved out of view, obscured by the shadows.
Mami's heart was pounding. She couldn't let Kyouko go. Not again. She screamed out again, "No! Come back!" As the words were leaving her mouth, she could feel the tense but reassuring sensation of sitting bolt upright and tossing a blanket aside.
Mami's eyes darted around the room, and spotted Kyouko, still fast asleep on her couch, another blanket half-heartedly draped over herself. Mami felt herself instantly relax, and wiped some of the sweat from her forehead.
It seems like Kyouko was the only one to go unawakened, however, as all three of her other friends had sat up in their own makeshift beds and were looking at her in concern. Her clock, ticking neatly away, told her it was around three in the morning.
Mami smiled sheepishly at the trio of girls. "Oh my, what are you three doing up at this hour?"
After a pause, and a yawn, Sayaka was the first to speak up. "You woke us up. You shouted something… are you doing alright?"
Mami smiled and tried to downplay it. She was good at that. "Oh, I'm fine, I must have just been having a bad dream."
"Bad enough to wake you up?" Madoka was clearly the most worried of the three. "I didn't hear what you shouted, but it must have been bad. Are you sure you're okay, Mami?"
Mami waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, I don't even remember what it was about," she lied. "You know how dreams can be. You all go back to sleep. I'll be just fine."
None of the girls seemed entirely satisfied with her answer, least of all Homura, (she was squinting intensely at Mami, either from suspicion or because she didn't have her glasses on,) but they all knew it was too deep into the night to start arguing about it now. The four of them all settled back into their sleeping arrangements, and seemed to go back to sleep.
It only seemed that they had all gone back to sleep, of course. While Mami could hear Sayaka and Madoka dozing away not long after, she suspected she might not go back to sleep after all. She laid there, gazing up at the ceiling, listening to the reliable and soothing ticking of her clock.
After what felt like many minutes — perhaps less, perhaps much more — Mami heard Homura speak, her already quiet voice brought down to a whisper. "You can rest easy, tonight, Mami." Mami sat up on her elbows, just enough to make eye contact with Homura, or at least an approximation of it in the darkness. "I know what you're feeling, I think."
There was a wisdom to Homura's tone that was somewhat unusual for the girl, but it comforted Mami all the same. "You do?"
Mami could just barely make out a small smile for Homura across the unlit room. "I do. We're not going to lose them again. Not this time."
Mami didn't fully understand what Homura was talking about, but she understood the sentiment, and that moment of solidarity quieted her dread, at least for now. She smiled back. "Thank you, Homura. Now, let's try and get some rest."
Homura nodded back at her in approval, and the two of them finally laid back down. The uncertainty of the future was still clinging tight to her, but Mami wrapped her arms around her pillow, and thankfully drifted off in a sleep that came blissfully close to being peaceful.