Work Text:
Black coffee.
Homura doesn’t enjoy it, not really. She can barely drink coffee after adding more than a few spoonfuls of sugar and maybe enough milk to scare many of her old doctors. But since it does its job of keeping her awake and working well enough, there’s not much to complain about.
That and the bitterness is a very welcome distraction after a nightmare.
(“Y o u m u s t u n d e r s t a n d-”
Explosions ravage the city. Thousands of wiry, monstrous limbs form a cage around everything as darkness fully envelops the world. Former protectors of the Light, now warped and twisted into beings that will forever torment the living surround her on all sides.
Cold, unmoving blood-red eyes stare at her. White fur remains unsettlingly clean despite all the debris around.
“-T h e r e i s n o o t h e r w a y.”)
Homura groans, laying her face down on the table, barely catching her mug before it becomes another annoyance she has to clean up. Just a wonderful way to wake up on a day off. Groaning slowly becomes hissing when she realizes she was tearing up. Again.
If she could just stop crying over some stupid dreams, that’ll be helpful.
Being near the other girls, she wishes dearly to be their friend, but she doubts they’d want that, usually keeps her occupied. If not that, then schoolworks does the job well. Even listening to the teacher rant about her love life is enough if she is that desperate.
Unfortunately, there will be none of that today. Now it’s just Homura crying over nothing with a cold cup of coffee at 5 in the morning. Absolutely delightful.
Fortunately, however, the sound of a door closing draws Homura out of her misery, followed by the soft yawn of a certain blonde she is now roommates with. The ravenette straightens herself up, wiping away any leftover tears she might have before Mami can see her.
Going back to sipping on her now actually very gross coffee, she looks up as the other girl enters the kitchen.
Which nearly makes her spit out the drink in shock.
Mami stands in front of the kitchen’s entrance. Bed hair, messy clothes. That was no longer a surprising sight to Homura, she’s seen worse trying to wake the other girl up in the morning for school.
What was shocking was her clothes.
The blonde wears a black hoodie, on the front of which has a drawing of a cat curling up printed on it. Lining its sleeves are tinier cat symbols, and attached to the hood is a pair of fake cat ears. It was somewhat too small on the girl, revealing a glimpse of her pajamas shirt underneath.
She looks really adorable, Homura admits. Only to herself, of course. The only problem is that the hoodie does not belong to the blonde. Nor should she be able to find it in the first place, with how deep inside the closet it was.
Upon catching sight of her roommate, Mami gives her a small smile, one still bright and cute despite the other girl’s clearly barely awake state, along with a simple greeting.
“Morning Akemi-san.”
“Good morning, Tomoe-san.” Homura nods at her in response, her eyes still strained on the taller girl’s choice of clothing. “Can I ask you something?”
“Huh? Of course, what is it?”
“Is that my hoodie?”
In an instant, Mami jolts awake, looking as if she almost jumped into the ceiling out of pure shock alone. A faint blush slowly grows on her face, light pink deepening as she tries to form an answer.
“... No?”
"Tomoe-san,” Homura narrows her eyes, her voice coming out harsher than she intended. “you know I don’t like to play games.”
As the other girl flinches, Homura knows she’s made a mistake. One she quickly tries to backtrack on.
“Sorry, I’m just… surprised.” It is true, though surprise would be an understatement. Not to mention the sheer embarrassment she feels seeing Mami wear one of her clothes.
The blonde just stands there, carefully staring back at Homura, her caution nearly causing the ravenette to curl up in shame, before a small smile forms on her face. Then Mami replies, her voice ever steady and calm.
“No, I’m the one who needs to say sorry. I took something without asking permission, after all.”
Homura shakes her head, it’s not like she’s taken anything important. What bothers her is how the other girl even finds it, or why she is wearing it at all. Does Homura even want to know all that?
As if reading her thoughts, Mami makes the choice for the ravenette.
“Remember when I asked if I could borrow one of your scarves the other day?” Homura nods. “Well, I happen to find this while looking through those scarves, it looks rather dusty so I decide to wash it before giving it back to you.”
“And you’re now wearing it because…?” The ravenette tilts her head curiously. Mami blushes even more, lifting her hands to cover her face slightly as she answers.
“W-well, it just looks so comfortable so I thought I’ll just borrow it for a night.” A pause. “Sorry.”
Homura sighs. She’s not even angry, the hoodie has been collecting dust for months anyway. She just wasn’t expecting someone to find it, much less wear it at all.
“It’s okay, just- maybe give me a warning next time.” That prompted the other girl to finally remove her hands, revealing a hopeful look on her face.
“...Can I give you a hug now? As an apology.” That almost makes the ravenette spit out her coffee for the second time this morning as she stares at the blonde incredulously.
Then Homura just sighs and sets her sight on the teabags nearby.
“Stop saying weird things like that.” As if she deserves such tenderness. “Give me a minute, I’ll make you some tea.”
Without even looking, Homura can tell the blonde is pouting at her. Still, Mami make her way toward the chair-
-Only to trip over something and fall.
The movement came to Homura naturally, perhaps a result of all the time she spent as a Precure. In an instant Mami was in her arms, resting against Homura’s body instead of face-planting on the floor. The blonde has wrapped her own arms around Homura’s waist, keeping herself secure in place.
The first thought the ravenette has is that Mami really needs that morning tea if this is how clumsy she’s going to be.
She was quickly distracted by several other things, such as the warmth of Mami’s body pressing against her own. Or how there’s a faint scent of rose from her hair. Or how, despite Mami being the one to nearly fall, Homura feels secure being held by her as well. She feels safe. Comfortable, even. The ravenette couldn’t help relaxing into the embrace.
This is more… calming than Homura expected.
A soft giggle from her senpai catches Homura’s attention. Quietly, she nuzzles into Homura’s shoulder as she speaks.
“See? That wasn’t so bad.” Homura blinks in confusion. Without waiting for her to say anything though, Mami continues.
“Just remember, you can always ask me for a hug if you want to, Akemi-san.”
Oh.
Oh.
So that was her plan. Homura feels her face heats up. She grumbles quietly, and in response, Mami only gives her a gentle laugh. Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
“...I will keep your offer in mind.” Homura mutters eventually. As tempting as the offer was, there is no way she can do something like that.
Apparently, her day couldn’t get any worse.
Landing on the living room floor through the window, Homura detransform in a flash of purple light. Her body aches, and if it weren’t for a Precure’s natural healing, she’d probably be on the floor already.
Four Witch attacks in a day. Four. During a school day, nonetheless. If another one comes up, the ravenette might just go on a Witch-murdering spree by herself. But that’d just get her killed, so she sets her target on the coffee cans in the refrigerator instead.
She can’t rest yet, there's still things to do.
A soft hand grasps Homura’s shoulder, nearly making her heart leap to her throat. She turned around, narrowing her eyes slightly at the other girl.
“Tomoe-san, you should stop scaring me like that.”
“Ah, sorry, Akemi-san.” Mami says apologetically, giving her a sheepish smile. Homura grumbles, contemplating raising up a hand to lightly flick the blonde’s forehead with her fingers.
Before the ravenette can do so, however, a flash of metallic yellow catches her eyes. A familiar brooch sits on the blonde’s hair, its surface reflecting like diamonds beneath the bright sunlight.
(A flash of dark gold. Vicious ribbons dragging her down even as she cried for help. Gentle eyes that once held warmth now staring back at her as if she was but a mere fly to be killed-)
Homura flinches, averting her eyes to the floor while her hands clench so tightly she might’ve drawn blood. Of course, how could she forget those nightmares? So much for saving her friends while she couldn’t even stand some stupid light tricks. As if she isn’t already weak and pathetic enough.
“Is something wrong, Akemi-san? Are you hurt?” Mami’s voice caught her attention once more. Despite how serious the blonde looks, the worries remain clear in her beautiful golden eyes as she examines Homura for injuries.
“I’m okay.” Homura manages to say, offering no resistance when Mami reaches for her hand. “Besides, shouldn’t I be asking you that? You’re the one who just got flung into a building.”
Mami’s face softened, a gentle smile of relief forming as she shook her head. “Don’t worry, they’ll have to try harder if they wanted to hurt me.”
“...That doesn’t make me less worried…” Homura mumbles to herself, distracted by the way the light dances on the other girl's hair. Under the warm glow of the setting sun, Mami looks so incredibly beautiful, her soft smile, the muted glow of her eyes and the fact that…
She looked very huggable.
In that moment, the combination of exhaustion from all the fighting she’s done and the tiredness from all the nightmares keeping her up at night finally drove Homura to do something really stupid.
She suddenly staggers forward, hugging the blonde tightly, burying her face into the taller girl’s chest.
“Akemi-san?” Mami asks soothingly in spite of her surprise, then lets out a soft giggle as she nuzzles into Homura’s shoulder as well. “You are a bit clingy today, aren’t you?”
Heat crawls up her ears as the ravenette relaxes, enjoying the gentle warmth emitting from the other girl’s body. Just as she remembers, soothing and secure.
“...You said I can always ask you for a hug if I want to.”
“Don’t worry, Akemi-san, I think you look adorable like this.” Homura lets out a silent, muffled noise of embarrassment, which only prompts Mami to press her closer in response.
Slowly, Homura feels her eyelids growing heavier. Maybe Mami won’t mind her taking a short nap right now, will she? She has always been so gentle and welcoming, surely she’ll understand if Homura falls asleep with how nice and comfortable she’s feeling…
Suddenly, movements on her head snap the ravenette wide awake in an instant.
Homura quietly shuffles out of the hug, moving a hand up to her head. She finds a headband there, a very different one from what she usually wears. No, this headband has two, fluffy protrusions atop of it, almost akin to cat ears.
“...Tomoe-san…” Homura says, her voice dead serious as she turns to look back at the blonde- who is currently smiling very guiltily back at her.
“I’m never letting you borrow my hoodie again.”
“E-eh!? Wait, Akemi-san! I’m sorry!”
Homura huffs, walking away while flipping her hair, leaving a panicking Mami behind in the living room.
Despite saying that, Homura knows she couldn’t bear to go through with it. Mami looks way too adorable in those hoodies for her to do so.