He really wasn’t going to push her off the cliff. The thought had crossed his mind, and without realizing it he had applied more pressure. But before anything could happen she had vanished. Teleportation? Or was it something more complicated. He’s always wondered how she managed to sneak into his home without alerting him. His curiosity had spiked, eyes narrowing.
“That doesn’t matter.” He really didn’t know how he managed to come this way. In fact he wasn’t sure where he was. Just the fact that he was far from home.
“What was that? What you did just now.” Sasuke was never known to inquire about others. In fact he was known to keep things short, or preferably not speak at all.
—— { ♢♢♢♦♦ }
…Fair enough.
They were both tight-lipped when it came to their own personal escapades, weren’t they?
Still, that didn’t appear to keep them from prodding the other with questions.
The magical girl smoothed the mauve skirt of her outfit and hopped down from her rock. She replaced her gun within her shield. “Something like that,” she replied vaguely.
At the end of the day, Homura preferred the elusiveness between them.
In turn, she was curious, not for the first time, about what it was exactly that people of his profession did. Her knowledge of ninja, super heroes and the like was limited (and here, Homura supposed anyone else might have seen the irony in this) but she was, at the very least, certain that they were superior in the art of assassination.
Long ago, out of curiosity and boredom, the time-traveler had dropped by for a rest in this particular time period and dimension. She had encountered no temporal anomalies at the time, but instead, her very first live ninja.
That is, Sasuke Uchiha.
Having been enrapt by a world (and such a person) nearly unfathomable, Homura had allowed her interest to keep her for a while. In the end, she had never truly discovered if the monsters she’d been hunting did exist in the avenger’s ‘Fire Country’, or even this particular universe.
Considering all this while currently chasing a cold trail, she decided perhaps it was as good a time as any to ask.
“Uchiha…Sasuke-san,” Homura paused, correcting herself. Her pastel eyes were fixed on the dark-haired male, voice calm and stare the usual somber. “Have the people of your village experienced any…unusual encounters lately?” ღ
A coincidence? He rarely came down this path, but something had pulled him to take the longer route. When he had spotted her he couldn’t help but go up to her. Raising his foot, it pressed against her back. Threatening to push her off the cliff.
“You shouldn’t be dozing off.”
—— { ♢♢♢♦♦ } She came to with a jolt. Limbs feeling stiff and heavy as led from fighting hard early that day, her landing was wobbly. Like a summoned thing, she seemed to evaporate from her rock and reappear somewhat further away, poised like a crane on another from her would-be attacker.
…Only when she recognized his face did she relax her stance and fierce grip on the gun in her in her hand.
“…Uchiha–san.”
The wind curled off the sea and sailed through her hair, muffling the edginess in her usually callous tone.
Ashamed, Homura turned her eyes away, scolding herself internally. His timing was most terrible. She had meant to take a rest, but to actually fall asleep…
“…You’re right. That was ill-minded of me. I’ve been…doing a lot of traveling lately, but I shouldn’t have let my guard down so easily…That aside,” Homura swiftly changed the subject, not wanting to delve into the reasons she had come here to ‘escape’, “it’s rare for you to be the one to find me. What brings you here?” ღ
“I’m tired of all of you.” Always poking fun at him. “You and everyone else can fuck off.”
—— { ♢♢♦♦♦ } “Ah…” Homura’s shoulders seemed to sag in dejection–all a pretense, of course. She ignores the part he mentions about ‘all’ for now. “I apologize. I thought we were well past the whole greeting thing since I teleported into your house that day.”
The girl doesn’t even a bat of an eyelash for a moment, and this knowledge seems to momentarily surprise even her. Drawing in a small breath, she brings a hand to her mouth as her brow furrows with unease.“
"I should apologize.” She realizes after pause. “I will use the door from now on like a normal person.
Women—he could never understand them. Especially the ones that surrounded him. They were all, strange. At least in his opinion they were all a little off.
“How—I didn’t even know you were here to begin with.” This is the first time he’s seen her since her departure. There was no way he could have said goodbye. In fact he wasn’t sure he was leaving in the first place.
Homura fixed Sasuke with an intense lavender stare and placed her hands on her hips. After a while, she just clicked her tongue softly and shook her head. So, perhaps she couldn’t blame him after all…
But she could still pretend to be mad at his dispense.
It was fun.
“…Something has come up, I’m here to stay.” She informed, and there was a sense of finality to her words that said this part of their conversation was over. “That aside,” the magical girl continued quietly, “if you’re leaving, then why aren’t you gone yet?”
“If I recall correctly you were the first one to leave. Besides I don’t need your permission.”
Homura took a moment to consider this.
True, she had left…and never did plan on coming back. It didn’t matter though, because Sasuke never seemed to care where she went. The magical girl slid her fingers beneath hair and shrugged it off her shoulders indifferently.
“…That’s besides the point, Uchiha.” She spoke quietly. “I said good-bye to you when I left. If you are leaving for good, at least have the decency to let me know.”
This was rare, she was normally so calm, reserved. Normally he would be the one with bouts of anger. He didn’t try to still his smug expression. His smirk grew as he watched her stomp her foot, similar to a child.
“Liar. You were just caught mumbling about me. I doubt you have the courage to do it.”
He was pushing her, partly for amusement, and it was also pay back for those other times. He wasn’t keen to her just appearing out of nowhere.
{ ♢ } —He was taunting her…and it made her want to do something completely outside her realm of reason–like giving him a good, solid kick in the shin and stomping away.
No, she decided, she couldn’t do that; she wasn’t some irate toddler, after all.
Glaring and gnashing her teeth together in muted resentment, the magical girl sighed out through her nose and turned her back to Sasuke. She pinched the space between her brows and took a moment to mentally count to ten while considering her options.
One…Two…Three…Four..
This was ridiculous–absurd. Why was she letting him challenge her patience like this?
Five…Six…Seven…Eight…
Perhaps she needed some time away from this dimension. See other Sasuke’s–
Nine, Ten…
–or maybe none at all.
“Sasuke Uchiha,” Homura responded quietly, just loud enough for the Uchiha to hear. It wasn’t as though he had asked for her company all this time–selfishly, thoughtlessly, she had simply gotten used to the idea of being here when she felt she could go nowhere else. His presence felt, at times, irritating, but also comforting.
But Homura knew she was just being naive. She didn’t belong here–or anywhere, really. This false little semblance of solidarity was exactly that.
“I will leave now, and you will not see me again,” she decided, the words, cold and plain, out of her mouth before she had even put much thought into them. Best not to think about these kinds of things. Closeness of any kind was damning to the bleak mentality she needed to maintain for her goals.
Homura cast a wayward glance over her shoulder, not really intending to meet his eyes.
No, she finalized. It wasn’t right for her, or fair to him to keep returning like this.
A sudden gale whirled at her feet and then a glimmering, oval-like portal appeared. She walked toward it, then stopped and spoke over the sounds of the small turbulence.
“Good-bye, Sasuke Uchiha.”
And then, quickly enveloped by light, she was gone just as easily as she could appear.
“Listen, next time just say it directly at me. Understand.”
He clearly heard his name. Not only was she meddling into other peoples lives (mainly his) she was also a liar.
{ ♢ } — “Wh-why you–!” At Sasuke’s blunt response, the magical girl was left struggling with a proper comeback. She held her hands to her face as she felt her cheeks begin to color.
Damn it, he was so irritating! Homura scowled fiercely at said irritating Uchiha, puffing out her cheeks in an uncharacteristic display of brattiness, but decidedly kept her mouth shut. He seemed so smug about himself that she could barely restrain the impulse to stomp her foot down like the child she appeared to be.
The girl balled her fists at her side and turned her head away as a gesture of defiance. “Hmph…You’re so full of yourself,” she grumbled quietly. “If I have something to say to you, I will say it.”
“Then I must be going deaf. I clearly heard you say my name.”
{ ♢ } — “I didn’t say your name, so you must be going deaf. I advise you to get that checked out.” As if she was going to admit that she had been talking about him–and to herself, worst of all.
