Sayaka looked curious at the music when Mami handed it over to her. A minute or so of studying it, and she seemed to nod in approval. She liked the look of it, how it might sound.

"Yeah, this I could do. Ah—should we get set up then?" She asked, a subtly excited tone to her voice as she smiled at the other girl.

"Certainly, let's start, no better time than the present hehe~" She said with a warm smile while walking over to the piano and taking a seat on the stool. Delicately Mami opened up the piano before patting at the other side of the stool to invite Sayaka. 

"Would you care to start us off?" The delighted tone in her voice displaying how much she anticipated this simple duet with the knight. "For the duet, you can be the top line and I will play the harmony along with you. That way we can have a nice resonance of the piece."

Sayaka grimaced as Mami attempted to help her up. She struggled to get her muscles to function with her, slowly standing up off the ground, though with a fair share of discomfort. 

"S…sorry. This is gonna…need a lot of work, huh? I pr-probably ruined whatever plans you had…" Of course Sayaka wasn’t going to stop beating herself up. That was the state of mind she’d put herself in. It showed in the way she purposely inhibited her healing. Her magic was automatic, instinctual. It took conscious control, to prevent it from triggering. 

"Well, of course it will." Mami said somewhat sternly and motherly to the other. Not wasting much time, she guided the wounded knight to the bed. "It isn't something simple as a paper cut or other simple injuries after all. Fair warning, treating these wounds is probably going to sting and hurt..." The blonde gunslinger hated inducing pain on Sayaka and even more so since the damage probably already hurt a lot.

"I am going to pick you up so we can get you on the bed, alright?" She cautiously inquired. Not until the blue head confirmed that she was ready would she proceed. They needed to take this slowly so that nothing worsened in anyway. 

Sayaka was glad to hear Mami agree happily to the offer. If anything would relax Sayaka more right now, it was finally being able to do something alongside the blonde again, now that she was back.

"Ah….I’m not really sure. Should we look through the sheets you have and find something, maybe? I mean…I still can’t do the really advanced stuff, but, anything else is fine. I’ve been practicing a lot while you were gone."

"Hmmm..." She thought to herself about what exactly they could play. It needed to be something that had a decent duet yet wasn't too difficult. Actually there was one that came directly to mind and it kind of had a happy calm feel to it that would be great for their reunion. "I know, how about we play sunset. It is a simple composition by Arny's Army."

She walked over to the cabinet labelled 'Piano music' and pulled it open and sifted through the folders. "Here it is!" Mami exclaimed joyously at finding and then presented it to her. "So what do you think?"

Sayaka wanted to shout that she was fine before Mami could come in. Though, she was hesitant to do that. She couldn’t deny, she needed help. But at the same time…she just wasn’t sure she was in a proper place for this.

"Mm…" Sayaka glanced at Mami, before her gaze fell to the floor, just about shamefully. She felt bad, likely ruining the blonde’s night with this kind of appearance. "S-sorry…I got…I got reckless again…" She mumbled, attempting to push herself up off the floor, though with little success. "I went hunting, and I sort of…d-didn’t really anticipate how distracted I was, I guess…" She admitted, looking off to the side with a grimace. Of course, she wasn’t about to admit, not all of the wounds had come from her fight.

In an all around upsetting time for her, really, this probably just made the topping of the cake. 

It wasn't even a surprise that the other was apologizing for the problem. Mami could careless about whether or not Sayaka's problem was her fault or not. All she wanted to do was make sure that there was no repeat of the prior mishap. Part of her accepting and keeping this relationship was her general understanding that problems like this would come up. 

"You don't need to apologize for that. It could happen to anyone including myself after all." She said gently to the other while walking over to her and carefully placing one of Sayaka's arms over her shoulder. "I still wanna know what happened but for now let's just get you into bed and everything." Very carefully, she began trying to lift the other off the ground with her. Though as far as bandaging and treating of the wounds, she was at a loss of what fully would be needed. Definitely a lot of alcohol for the clean up. That certainly won't be pleasant to say the least.

Internally Mami squealed in a joyous appreciation at the simple gesture of touch their foreheads together. It wasn't anything overly special, yet to her it made her feel even more close to her girlfriend. "You certainly seem eager to adorably affectionate today," the gunner stated in a light and very warm tone. Contently enjoying the connection, she gently nudged the other while maintaining her forehead against the other's. "This is really nice."

Sayaka blushed as Mami prodded her cheek, though simply grinned faintly as she fidgeted a bit, and looked over at the piano. Come to think of it, they really didn’t play music together too often. Outside of lessons, anyway. It was something they would definitely need to do more often.

"Well…I wouldn’t mind trying it now. If you wanted to, of course. I mean—maybe we could play a song together?" She suggested, almost bashfully. She didn’t know about having Mami do such a thing so soon after getting back after what was a probably exhausting trip, but…it did seem like a nice idea.

Why didn't she think of such an idea? Probably due to the fact that she had become accustomed to waiting to do things when it worked for Sayaka. It was more convenient that way since it meant the other got time to herself when she wanted and/or needed it.

"I wouldn't mind partaking in a little duet now." She gave a gleeful smile. Though she was slightly tried and overwhelmed from the return trip, Mami didn't want to pass up the opportunity. Just a song or two wouldn't be too demanding on her. "Is there any song in particular you have been practicing that you might wanna try?"  

-- A Born Coward [@Sayaka]

Funny how much Homura disliked hearing that tone of disappointment in Sayaka’s voice. She was the one in bad shape right now, and yet more of her concern was felt for the knight’s well being. She didn’t spare much feeling for herself anymore. It wasn’t a trait that was immediately obvious to many though.

At the prospect of getting up, Homura took a breath, shutting her eyes for a moment. “I can try to get up…I can’t make promises for that. I feel weak, and if I move too much it feels as though someone’s lit me ablaze. But I’m certain I can move at least that much.” She reasoned, before opening her eyes again. Already she was attempted to move, groaning, but limbs adjusting nonetheless, to try and get a grasp on her movements, and find a way to get herself up without agitating the ribcage damage or her still burning back. 

It was painfully obvious that the magi was struggling to even get up. That simply wouldn't pass with Sayaka especially given the person was one of her few friends. The question is how would they proceed without furthering the injuries. She considered it a moment before figuring the best solution without relying on Homura supporting herself.

"Hey, just relax okay? I got an idea." Not even waiting for much of a confirmation, she swept her arms under Homura's legs and picked her up in a princess carry. Carefully holding the other as she did it making sure not to exasperate the other's injuries too much. "There. I will just get you to my house this way. That way you don't hurt yourself even more." Sayaka gave her a reassuring smile.

She’s in the living room.

That caused a problem. Sayaka should have just gone to her studio. But now that she was already here, quite frankly, she wasn’t sure she could stomach walking any more, with the stings that irritated her skin right now. Which was why she opted for…trying to sneak in through the bedroom window. One that by now, out of habit, was left unlocked. 

Of course, falling into the room and hitting the floor, would no doubt, elicit abrupt, noisy reaction, from an already sensitive, injured girl. 

"Shit—!!" She cursed as she hit hte floor with a thud, groaning afterwards as she slumped onto the floor.

Ah, good…there was…no way Mami wouldn’t hear that, of course. Just great.

THUD!

Well that gave her a small jump. Though it wasn't the first time that Sayaka had made a slightly loud entrance, however, it had been awhile so it still caught her off guard. Each time she heard the blue head falling into the apartment, Mami never wasted time responding to it. After all, it was worrying whether or not the other got hurt or not.

Lightly she knocked on the door of her girlfriend's. Part of her excited to show the various birthday treats aside from the obvious wanting to tend to the possibly injured knight. "Is everything alright, Sayaka-chan?" Mami politely asked before entering the room. 

Nothing could prepare her for the extent of injuries that was displayed upon when the door opened. No way could her window do that much damage. It had been so long since the other got so badly beat up that she was once again frightened. "W-What happened?" She inquired before rushing immediately to Sayaka while dropping the spatula that she forgot was in her hand still.

"... we need to patch you up quick, otherwise these will get infected." Still she kind of didn't wanna get the supplies just yet until after a little elaboration of what happened.

"Mm…I guess I’ll try my best not to distract Mami from her work." Sayaka chuckled, fingers curling between Mami’s fingers and entwining with them. Even after all the excited embraces and fleeting kisses, just holding hands in such a manner lightened the feeling in Sayaka’s chest considerably. 

"Ah…" With a faint blush, the blunette gave a soft, nervous laugh, and nodded. "Y-yeah, actually…I’ve been getting into a lot of hobbies I guess, while you were away. But definitely practicing a lot more. I’d really like that—I miss playing with Mami a lot."

"You don't need to worry about distracting me, you silly." She lightly nudged at the other's cheek. If anything, she kind of wanted to encourage the knight to brother her more. Though that probably wouldn't fly with Sayaka's typical attempts to avoid getting in the way regardless of the situation. 

"I also miss playing with you though. We really should try to have more time for just the piano. It is rather relaxing partaking in such simple and enjoyable activities." Mami happily gave a little giggle at the idea. Having a little concert just between them would be fun.