Sayaka's Date: sharp blue style

“Sayaka-chaaan~!” Mere moments after Miki Sayaka stepped into the crappy fast food joint a few blocks from her apartment, she was struck by a bullet of white, yellow, and pink-red, one that nuzzled into her neck not unlike a cat from the moment it connected. “Holy carp, I didn’t think you’d actually come!”

“Come on, have I ever stood you up before?” The blue-haired girl snickered, wedging her hands between the two of them to pry her friend off. “I’ve got a favor to ask, anyway.”

“…You can let go now,” she murmured after a few lengthy seconds with no luck. The little American didn’t look like much, but once and a while, her Eversor showed through. A moment later, a shiver down Sayaka’s spine as enthusiastic nuzzling turned to nibbling, and she tore the smaller girl away. “Christ, Amber, everyone’s staring!”

“Only ‘cause you started yelling, dummy.” It was a small relief, at least, that Amber was still Amber. Whatever she’d had to do since…whatever the hell happened, she had the same grin, the same playful glint in her yellow eyes. Sayaka worried about her. She really did. “And anyway, it wouldn’t be weird if you just let me come over to your place.”

“Come on, you know I can’t do that. Kyouko’d get the wrong idea. You’d GIVE her the wrong idea.”

“Well that’s just mean. I’ve got enough love for two! She can sleep at the foot of the-okay, okay.” Amber giggled, seemingly unfazed by Sayaka’s withering stare, and the two idled together among hushed whispers as they waited to order.

Ten minutes and a tray piled with an enormous amount of junk later, they sat in relative silence, neither quite sure how to bring up what they wanted to talk about. Deep, blue eyes met shining amber time and again, and Sayaka almost spoke, almost. It wasn’t supposed to be hard, or anything. She just needed to get her sword fixed.  But that wasn’t what she was worried about, exactly, either.

“Hey, Amb…“ she finally began, only to be cut off by a few fries being delicately shoved into her open mouth.

“Gotcha~ So how’ve you been? How’s the Equerry thing going? Do you need me to kill her?” They’d talked about it a couple of times before. Well, Sayaka hadn’t really MEANT it that way. Maybe. Mostly. She didn’t want to have to mean it that way, and she didn’t really think Amber took her that seriously. “’Cause I’m gonna be honest, I have all kinds of pent-up frustrations, here. Like, wow.”

“I don’t-“ When the Equerry opened her mouth to reply, another fry slid into her mouth. “Quit it!” But even so, it was hard not to laugh. Amber was a pain in the ass, but…she was refreshing, too. A lot like Kyouko could be. “I don’t know. I mean, she’s getting…better? Since she got back from her…vacation, we’ve almost gotten along pretty well.”

“Aww, if I knew all it took to butter Sayaka-chan up was a promotion, I would have become a Warmaster years ago.” Amber leaned on the table, resting her head on one hand as she fed her lover(?).

“It’s not-“ Fry. “It’s not like that! She’s really been trying to clean up her act. I don’t really get it-“ Fry. “I don’t really get it, but-“

“I bet it’s for Fatty. And Miss Mammies.”

“Fatty? And don’t-“ Fry. “Don’t talk about Mami-san like that.” The blue-haired Eversor had more or less resigned herself to being fed at this point. Not like it was hurting anything – she knew Amber hadn’t tampered with these. Probably. It would have been hard.

“Green Fatty. The one she was makin’ out with.”

“Oh, Midori-chan. Yeah, maybe? She basically treats her like a body pillow, though.” Fry. “Something soft she can do whatever she-“ Fry. “-wants with, because they won’t stop her.”

“Ahaha, is that really her name? Omigod, that poor fatty.”

“Yeah, seriously…” The next fry she took slower, nibbled on in deep thought. “So how’re you doing in…uh…whatever it was?” Sayaka felt like she made a mistake the moment she’d said it – a shadow crossed Amber’s normally bright features, and though she sprung mostly back into place a second later, the very edge of it remained.

“Still crazy, still stupid. I’m running out of people to talk to, now all I can get from Sab and Wendy is like ‘bawww some animal died bawww my girlfriend bawww everything is the end of the world’, and Jade pretty much just follows Wendy around.”

Wendy. Wendy Wendy Wendy, again. Sayaka opened her mouth to-Fry.

“I still can’t tell you, Sayaka-chan. Yet. Maybe. That’s kind of what I wanted to talk about…” Her face fell, and the fries finally stopped. The little American cleared her throat and covered her mouth with her hands, forcing out a faux-trumpet fanfare.

“This is an invitation to Warmaster ‘Murderface’ Matsuda and her associates to formally discuss a temporary alliance with the Church of the Golden Land.”

“…What?” She nearly dropped the burger she was raising to her mouth.

“The Church of the Golden Land wants you.” Amber stood just enough to reach over and poke Sayaka in the chest. “There’s somebody that’s causing us and the Warmaster both trouble, so we figured we’d get your help. Maybe, you know…build up some trust between us.”

The Equerry knew it, looking into Amber Nakajima’s eyes. ‘Save me, Sayaka-chan’. That’s what Amber wanted to say. This was her chance to do something about all the vague…vague bullshit she’d been fed every time they’d met. Would have been better if she could just bust in somewhere and start cutting people apart, but-

“Sooo can you talk to her about it? And it’d be good if you came, too. And maybe Miss Mammies? But probably not Miss Mammies. It’ll be me, Wendy, Jade, and a few local reps. We’re not going to ask you to come unarmed or something, but, y’know. Maybe tell her not to start shooting people.” The American’s expression was cool (by her standards), her voice quiet.

“…When? We’ve got a mission soon, but…”

“Get ahold of me when you’re done and we’ll set up a time, mmkay?” She relaxed back into her seat and unwrapped a burger, as though nothing at all were wrong.

---

“You did WHAT to her? What…how? I know she’s pretty hard on herself…” While the rest of lunch had been kind of awkward, the favor Sayaka had to ask seemed to kick things back into a normal pace for the two of them. Amber clutched, as she put it, the broken remains of Blueberry Cheesecake Brownie, the faintest vestiges of tears in her eyes.

“…I broke her in a fight with Murderface.”

“The crap did she use? A black hole? Some kinda super-laser? The power of friendship?” Amber squeaked as she ran her fingers over the blade, then hugged it close. “Poor baby…”

Sayaka scratched at the back of her neck.

“She was using Kharn’s old weapons. The gold ones.”

“…Ah. Yeah, I guess those are pretty hardcore.” A moment of silence passed between them. “So how bad did you beat her? Pretty bad, I bet. For hurting my baby.”

“… …Y…yeah. …I beat her…pretty bad.” Sayaka stared at the ground, mumbling out her half-assed lie. She squeezed her eyes shut when Amber started to laugh.

“You lost to a Vindicare, didn’t you? You got beat by a Vindicare! Oh crackers! Wow. Just…just wow.” It was all Amber could do, really, to not cry as laughter overtook her.

“She got a lucky punch! She was still juiced up by the fucking golden axes!” The Equerry snarled as she tried to preserve the pride she had left.

“It’s-it’s okay, Sayaka-chan! I still love you! But, um, I’ll be the husband, okay? You can…you can stay home and raise the ki-hi-hi-hids-!” Another peal of laughter overtook her, nearly sending her sprawling on the ground. “Oh man I’m gonna pee myself…!”

“Just fix the fucking sword, Amber. I need it for the mission.”

“Hee, yeah…yeah, okay…yeah…Mmm.” The redhead wiped a tear away from her eye. “I need to borrow a lab, though. Could you  get me in?”

“…Sure. I’ll make up a reason. I’ll just…tell them you’re a consultant, or something.” She let out a small noise as Amber’s arms squeezed tight around her again, sword still clutched in one hand. …She didn’t try to push her away this time. This time, she held her close, just for a minute, and ran her fingers through silky red hair.

“…Hey, Amber. I’ll…I’ll get you out of there, okay? Don’t worry.”

“I was never worried, Sayaka-chan. You’re my hero, y’know.” It felt like a long time for both of them, and even then, it wasn’t nearly long enough. At least, for Amber. Sayaka already felt bad for doing THIS much, but the American’s smile made it worth it. It wasn’t wide, joyful, or exaggerated, like usual. If she didn’t know her as well as she did, she might have nearly missed it entirely.

Just a soft curve or her lips and a small light in her eye, then a gentle kiss on Sayaka’s cheek. For a moment, there were no masks or pretenses between them. And then, though it was only briefly there, it was gone. Shattered by a bark and a sharp salute.

“Sayaka-chan! No witnesses!”

“And no discounts.” Sayaka returned her salute, less enthusiastic but no less crisp.

She’d get her in the R&D lab as soon as she could. And if she could talk Murderface’s dumb ass into it, maybe she could finally make good on her promise.

Maybe she really could save her.