Alright, alright, alright. I know what you’re thinking. “A Kyo/Saya fan fiction!? Ew! Get that lovey-dovey stuff away from me!”
To which I will immediately respond, “Yes, this is a Kyo/Saya fanfiction. No, this isn’t all lovey-dovey. It’s more kinda cute and meaningful than that. Plus, if you’ve seen Madoka Magica and don’t ship these two, then you’ve got a serious problem that I cannot fix.”
To which you will then say, “Oooh. Cool! I can’t wait to read it!”
To which I would then reply with, “Then what are you waiting for! Part one begins right here!! With the other three parts coming up soon!”
Anyways, all that aside, in case you couldn't tell by the title, yes, this is based heavily off of the Christmas story, The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. It's one of my favorite Christmas stories, and given that the them is self-sacrificial wishes for loved ones, it fits perfectly in the greater story of Madoka Magica. If a better story is out there, please let me know.
Yes, I know that it's nearly spring and I'm just now uploading this. But let's be honest. Love is year-round. And who doesn't love a good ol' Christmas story!
Well, with that out of the way, here is my first Kyo/Saya story. Let me know what you think in the comments! I will be uploading the rest at a later date!
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The Gifts of the Magae
Sayaka Miki and Kyouko Sakura lived together in a small home in downtown Mitakihara city. The two girls had been best friends ever since they met back in middle school. Practically inseparable; these two were the definition of true friendship, love, and faithfulness.
Their small house was right on the border of a new area in development. So there was always a lot of traffic around. Bulldozers, dump trucks, even the occasional cranes crawled their way through the streets in front of their home.
The new land in development was to be a giant apartment complex with hundreds of rooms for many people to live in. Exactly the thing that Mitakihara City needed as their population was constantly booming! The bad part was that the developers were in some sort of legal land feud with a number of the locals who lived next door to Sayaka and Kyouko.
Which meant that the development had been halted for some time. Leaving the construction vehicles, as well as the piping, tubes, concrete mix, and everything else all over the place. Some even still sat on the front yards of many of the homeowners.
Slowly, however, the construction company won over the landlords, and in a cruel plan to slowly take over the houses of the area, they began increasing rent on a monthly basis. Many of the poor people of the area were forced to leave, causing the construction to slowly regain its pace.
At this point in time, the rent had reached an exorbitant rate, and Kyouko and Sayaka were in a real bind. The two could barely afford to eat out anymore, much less have a ‘fun’ budget.
But the two of them pushed on. Pinching every penny that they could, they were able to make rent payments on time. However, their pinching could only go so far, and eventually, the two of them had to start selling their personal belongings in order to keep up with the rent increase.
As fate would have it though, during what was the toughest time for them financially, winter rolled by into town. Slowly the days grew colder, and the snow began to pile up. The days grew shorter, and the nights grew longer as November came and went. Then December came. Which meant Christmas was just around the corner.
“Sayakaaaaa~!” Kyouko shouted as she knocked violently on the door to her friend’s room.
“MMmmmmmgggrrr…” Came the muffled reply.
“If you don’t open this door right now, so help me GOD, I’ll kick it down!” Kyouko screamed as she kicked the door open.
“What?!” Sayaka shouted as she nearly leapt out of her bed and threw her covers off and over to the side.
“Why even bother giving me a warning if you’re just going to kick the door down anyways…?” The blue haired girl asked indignantly as she rubbed her face.
“Well, you always complain about me not giving you enough time to react, ya know? So I decided to give you some time!” Kyouko said as she pulled some Pocky out of her jacket pocket.
“Want some?”
Sayaka looked at the candy, then slowly looked back up at Kyouko.
“No? It’s breakfast time.”
“Man, you’re really cramping my style right now.” Kyouko grumbled as she took a stick out and swiftly tossed it in her mouth.
Sayaka sighed and shook her head.
“What’s got you so excited today?”
Kyouko grinned excitedly as she threw her arms around Sayaka in a big bear hug.
“It’s Christmas Eve, girl! Come on! Don’t tell me you don’t remember!?”
“How could I forget? You only reminded me every day this month that we were ‘one day closer!’ to Christmas Day!” Sayaka said with a smile as she leaned into her friend’s embrace.
“Yeah, well, it’s only because I know you’d forget if I didn’t remind you!” Kyouko shouted as she pushed herself away from Sayaka.
“I mean, it’s kind of hard to forget when my phone says it’s December.” Sayaka offered in her defense.
“Y-yeah!? Well, just forget it.” Kyouko said as she swallowed her Pocky and turned in a huff.
“Breakfast’s ready if you want anything.”
“What’d you cook up this time?” Sayaka said as she watched Kyouko leave her room. She then gently shut the door behind her friend and began changing her clothes. “The usual.” Kyouko said mischievously from the other side of the door.
“That’s what I’m afraid of…” Sayaka groaned from inside her room.
“Just, you know, come out when you’re ready. It’s not like it’s getting cold or anything.” Kyouko snarked as she left Sayaka to head back into the dining room.
Their meager house didn’t have much. In fact, most of their belongings had already been sold to pay for rent. Last month’s, that is.
The red haired young woman looked around the barren place. Where once stood bookshelves, cabinets, desks, tables, even lamps; now was…nothing. Their place was so empty in fact, that one day when they had a friend over, the raven haired girl had commented that it looked like the two of them were just moving in.
Kyouko smiled sadly. She never really had much of any value, that wasn’t her style. But she knew the past few months had been particularly hard on Sayaka. Having to sell everything she had collected over time; her whole life was pretty much gone. Just so the two of them could stay in the place they called home.
She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. ‘It’s not fair that Sayaka had to do all that! And I didn’t have to sacrifice anything! But not after today. I’m going to do something for her, show her how much I really do care about her.’
She reached down and fingered the necklace she wore around her neck. She wouldn’t have necessarily called it a family heirloom, but it technically did belong to her mother, and it was the only thing that she owned that reminded her of the good times she had with her family.
Not that she thought about her family all that often…
“Hey, Kyouko. Why the long face?” Sayaka’s voice broke her trance and brought the fiery girl back to reality.
“Oh! Uh, it’s—it’s nothing!” She shouted as she dismissed Sayaka’s concern with a wave.
“Uh, anyways,” Kyouko tried to regain her composure, but Sayaka took her by surprise.
“I see you’re wearing the necklace again.” The blue haired girl said as she reached over and gently lifted the necklace to look at it.
“Y-yeah, wh-what about it?!” Kyouko said as she blushed.
“It’s nice. I like it when you wear it.” Sayaka said with a smile as she looked up into Kyouko’s red eyes.
“W-well, y-you don’t have to be so blunt about it!” Kyouko nearly shouted as she looked away to do her best to avoid eye contact.
Sayaka chuckled slightly and took a couple steps back from her friend.
“Got any plans for after work today?” Sayaka asked as she turned and headed towards the kitchen/dining area.
“Not a lot. Why?” Kyouko asked as she looked over at Sayaka; the young woman ran a hand through her blue hair, her hand stopping when it reached her plain hairpin. The same standard hairpin that you can get for cheap at any convenience store.
“There’s something I’ve been needing to get to that I have to do today.” Sayaka said as she sat down at the table and began to eat.
“Oh?” Kyouko said as she looked down. “I think I know what you’re talking about.”
Sayaka had borrowed money from Hitomi so they could help pay rent last month. She promised to pay her back before Christmas. And they didn’t have money. So she was obviously going to ask her for more time to pay her back.
Kyouko bit her lip and forced herself to change the conversation.
“Well, when you get back, are we still going through with our plans?”
“Of course!” Sayaka said excitedly. “Like I’d miss a chance to have a Christmas meal with you!”
Kyouko smiled as she sat down across from Sayaka and stuffed her face with a waffle.
“Ya know?” Kyouko said with a mouth full of food. “I’ll bet you get tired of wearing the same boring hairpin every day, don’tcha?”
“Huh? That’s random.” Sayaka said as she looked up at Kyouko.
“I mean, it looks nice and all, don’t get me wrong! But I’m betting you’d like to have something new sometimes, don’tcha?” Kyouko said as she pointed her fork at Sayaka.
“Well, you’re not wrong.” Sayaka said as she reached up and felt the plain hairpin. “At one point in time I had one that looked a lot better than this one, remember?”
Sayaka was, of course, talking about back in middle school when they first met. Sayaka had a hairpin that mirrored her love for music. She tried explaining what it was at one point, but all Kyouko got from it was that it looked like two of the letter F: ff.
“It actually would be cool to find something like that again, now that I think about it.” Sayaka said as she tilted her head in thought.
“But you know what else would be cool?”
“Huh?” Kyouko looked at her friend quizzically as she stuffed yet another waffle into her mouth.
“It’d be cool if you had some sort of gem for your necklace, don’t you think? One that matched your hair and eye color!” Sayaka said with a grin.
“Awww, naw.” Kyouko shook her head. “Red’s my favorite color and all, but that would be TOO much.” She said as she crossed her arms.
“Hmmmm….” Sayaka said as she leaned in close to Kyouko and poked her cheek with her finger.
“H-hey! Stop that!” Kyouko shouted as she pushed Sayaka’s hand out of her face.
“Fine. What about a blue one then? Blue’s a good color.”
“Blue makes me sick.” Kyouko teasingly spat.
“Right, that’s why you love me so much.” Sayaka said teasingly.
“I-I never said—! I-I mean,” Kyouko stuffed her face again and turned away to avoid looking at Sayaka. “You assume too much!”
The truth was, Sayaka was right. Kyouko did want a red gem for her necklace. But there was no way they were going to be able to afford that. ‘Not for a long time at least.’
Sayaka smiled to herself. She knew exactly what Kyouko had been wanting. Everyday for the past couple weeks whenever the two of them had been out and about, Kyouko always stopped by this one jewelry store that had a fancy red pendant for sale. Sadly it was much more than either of them could afford—or even hope to for a long time—but that didn’t stop the fiery red head from dreaming.
“Oh! Look at the time! I don’t want to be late!” Sayaka said suddenly as she bolted up from her chair and turned to leave for work.
“Alright, you go get ‘em today!” Kyouko said as she pumped her fist.
“Haha, you know I will!” Sayaka said with a laugh as she bumped Kyouko’s fist, then turned and left Kyouko alone in the room.
The red haired young woman leaned back in her chair with a sigh once she heart the frond door shut, signaling that Sayaka was gone.
“Well, I’ve got things to do, can’t just sit around forever!” She said to herself as she forced herself to move.
“But. Maybe I’ll have one more waffle.”
