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Sometimes, often, Madoka dreamed of being something more. She spread her wings, beyond the edges of the cosmos, and reached out for souls on the brink of despair. With every wish granted, there was no end to her journey. But one girl had taken her hands, pulling a fragment of her from the reaches of eternity.
But Kaname Madoka was just a normal girl, and her dreams were nothing more than that.
Madoka opened her eyes, and upon realizing she was laying on grass, she belated realized she had dozed off while with Homura. She turned her head, wanting to apologize, but her throat closed upon seeing the strange, quiet smile on Homura's lips. "Did you sleep well?" she asked Madoka gently.
"I…" Madoka and Homura sat on a grassy hill on the outskirts of Mitakihara, as they often did, and the stars above seemed to glimmer as if enclosed in a crystal dome. At the base of the hill, gray-faced dolls danced, heedless of anything else around them. "I had that same dream again. Of being something different."
Homura shifted closer to Madoka, and the dark circles under her eyes had deepened. "Is it a sad dream?"
"I don't know." Madoka touched the red ribbons in her hair, ribbons that Homura had given her and that her mother had called refreshingly bold. "It's like I'm me, but… not. Maybe I went far away and became a different kind of being."
"Like a goddess?"
Madoka couldn't help but laugh, faint as it was. "Oh, no! I could never be a goddess!"
Homura's smile vanished as she laid her hand over Madoka's. "Why do you say that?"
Despite herself, Madoka found her fingers lacing with Homura's. "I'm just a normal girl. I'm not special at all."
"You haven't changed a bit, have you?" Homura murmured, resting her head against Madoka's shoulder. "But I don't mind."
Carefully Madoka curled her free arm around Homura's waist. She still quite didn't understand her attraction to Homura, but it felt familiar, like a kind of nostalgia, and with each kiss they shared, she remembered more and more. A longing to protect Homura filled her, and someday, she hoped, Homura would share her secrets. This was an artificial world, Madoka knew, and she herself was a mere fragment of a girl who had made a wish and changed the world.
"Homura-chan," Madoka said, releasing Homura's hand to tuck a strand of Homura's hair behind her ear, and her fingers just barely touched that intricate earring Homura always wore. "Sometimes I dream of flying too."
Homura's eyes went wide, and the sudden fear in that gaze was far too familiar to Madoka. "Do you wish to leave?"
Madoka shook her head. "I wouldn't want to leave you behind."
Relief washed across Homura's face, and she smiled, a genuine smile like Madoka remembered from a long time ago. "I'm glad. You don't need to be alone anymore."
Gently, as if holding glass, Madoka touched Homura's cheek and her lips found Homura's. There was so much more she needed to tell Homura, but they could stay like this a little longer underneath the crystalline night sky. Someday, a long time from now, when she found her wings again, she and Homura could fly together.
Once, Madoka had been part of something more, and even this fragment still held hope.