InsaneJournal

The Sea Was Cold Comfort (Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Tales of Legendia, Homura & Fenimore)
Title: The Sea Was Cold Comfort
Author: catdevigri
Fandom: crossover - Puella Magi Madoka Magica x Tales of Legendia
Pairing/characters: Fenimore & Homura
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Discussion of suicide, small mention of rape
Word count: 875
Prompt/challenge you're answering: The way Homura chooses to comfort Fenimore is definitely unique to Homura...



The girl who washed up on the beach was still breathing. Homura stood on the sidewalk for a few minutes just watching her. She was dressed in a wave-torn school uniform. It was a high school uniform, but not one from Mitakihara. The blond beached mermaid, one pigtail still tied high on her head, hailed from Werites Beacon across the bay. Homura wondered by all the difficult tasks always fell to her. Half reluctant, half curious, she stepped onto the sand. It was wet and packed hard from the previous night's storm. It crunched like spilled rice under her feet.

"Are you conscious?" she asked the older girl.

"I'm..." she coughed, "Still alive?" She opened her tightly clenched fist and her handbag fell open. Out rolled a turquoise soul gem. It flickered with color, a single spot of light pulsing against the dark.

Homura picked it up and returned it to the sequined bag, but the clasp would not properly close. "Yes. This is the beach of Mitakihara. You just came in with the tide on the opposite side."

"I threw myself off the pier... I...I can't let myself become a witch...But I... I can't go on after what I did to Stella."

Homura crouched down and brushed some hair from the despondent girl's eyes. The tresses did not move as easily as she'd expected, stuck to her skin as they were by traces of sea salt. She would have counseled the girl not to speak, but if she intended to die, it made little difference anyway. Homura just hoped that the taint would not overtake her right here and transform her into a witch. She was going to be late for school as it was.

"Can you- can you do something for me?"

"That depends on what it is," Homura answered thoughtfully. She would not commit herself without further information. She would rather not let another person down.

"Listen to me before I go. That's all." It was a simple enough request. Homura nodded her assent. "My name is Fenimore and I was just an ordinary high school student in Werites Beacon until my best friend, Shirley, made a contract with this animal thing- Kyubei." It was Homura's silent recognition of her Soul Gem that convinced Fenimore that minimal explanation was required. "Well, I wouldn't make a contract. And at first Stella, Shirley's older sister, wouldn't either. But Shirley was having such a hard time fighting alone... So Stella joined her."

This story could only have a bad end, but Homura felt for Fenimore. She knew what it was like to be naive. Fenimore's nearer hand lolled open on the sand. It looked so pathetic lying there; Homura picked it up.

"Stella was...really skillful. Like being a magical girl had been what she had always been meant to do. Shirley still had a hard time. And it got worse when the boy she liked starting going out with Stella. I..." Fenimore choked out a sob, "I just wanted to protect Shirley so badly. I- I didn't stop to think what terrible things might happen... I made a contract. I wished for a Grief Seed that would cleanse Shirley's Soul Gem all the way- to bring her back from the brink. The thing is...a witch like that would have to be pretty powerful, right? Look what fighting her did to me." A tear rolled down Fenimore's cheek, cutting a soft path through the salt and sand already drying there. "My wish made Stella into that witch. Shirley survived. And she's safe from becoming a witch for now, but only because we had to fight- we had to kill her sister."

This was the first time Homura had met Fenimore in all her leaps backward to try again. But there was still a chance for Madoka- for them. Homura could not turn back time for the sake of this stranger. "If you had to do things again, it would go differently, wouldn't it?"

"Yes! There has to have been another way," Fenimore squeezed her hand.

"And maybe there will be," Homura thought.

The tide was headed back in, beginning to lap at Fenimore's bare feet. "It's funny," Fenimore chuckled hoarsely, although her eyes were filled with tears, "Kyubei thought I might make a contract out of vengeance- to get back at those guys in Vaclav's gang who raped me. He doesn't understand humans at all. He didn't seem to get that I ended up making a contract out of love."

Kyubei might not understand that urge, but Homura certainly did. "So did I," she fervently informed Fenimore.

"You did? Then - then you don't have time to be hanging around with me. There's still hope out there for you and the one that you love." Homura rose slowly, gradually allowing Fenimore's hand to slip from her own and drop back onto the ground. "Good luck, Miss."

"Homura."

Fenimore smiled slightly. "Good luck," she repeated, "Homura-san."

The song of the sea echoed in Homura's ears as she walked away from the tiny stretch of beach and gradually began to run. Fenimore's blessing might not help, but neither could it hinder her odds. When Homura returned that way in the afternoon, Fenimore would be either gone or transformed.