Judith Lillian Cohen's Story

Judith

"Oh!" Judith perked up, blinking in surprise as Margaret paid for the dvd. "Thanks, Margie! I'd forgotten all about breakfast..."

She'd been in such a rush to get dressed earlier, that she'd forgotten to have something to eat before leaving with her friend. Strange she hadn't noticed that earlier; especially after fighting that Witch. By all rights, she should be starving. Weird that she didn't feel even the least bit hungry...

Oh, well. She wasn't about to question that too much.

Judith took the bagged dvd once the transaction was finished, slinging the plastic bag around her shoulder. She was glad all that had worked out, in the end. Ruth would just love her for this, no doubt; she'd been wanting this movie for so long! The green-haired girl couldn't wait to see the joyous look on her sister's face when she opened up her present on her birthday...

"Thanks for buying the dvd and for the food and drink, too, Margie!" Judith beamed, smiling widely at her companion as they walked out of the store. She reached over and took one of the cups of tea, and sipped from it.

"What food did you get?" she further inquired, eying the bag Margaret carried in her other hand.

Margaret

In reply to the offers of thanks, Margaret merely shrugged as if to say "Of course." The inquiry as to what breakfast foods had been obtained however, actually made her have to stop and think. Margaret knew that she had gotten pastries, but she had just selected a large variety of them at random, so to firstly explain why she would be paying with a hundred dollar bill, and also so that the possibility of Judith not liking one kind or another would be less of an issue.

In the end, she settled for readjusting the objects in her hands so that she was now holding the bag open with both, while balancing her tea on her thumb. It wasn't the most stable of positions for the cup, but Margaret didn't seem inclined to allow it to fall, and it didn't really look like it was going to. She then extended the open bag toward Judith so that she could look inside. "See for yourself." she offered.

The elder Puella Magi wasn't entirely sure where they were headed at the moment, walking through the mall as they were, but she assumed they were going somewhere. Well, obviously they were going somewhere. The part that was assumed was that Judith had some destination in mind. If not, she had to admit that this was nice too.

Judith

Judith peered inside the bag, and grinned when she saw its contents. "Ooh, those look delicious, Margie! Thanks again for buying them!"

After another few minutes of walking, Judith finally led them to their destination: a bench located near the mall water fountain. The green-haired girl took a seat on the bench, placing the bag containing the dvd at her feet.

She stretched her hand over to reach into Margaret's bag, and took out a plastic container that held one of the pastries. The younger Puella Magi eagerly opened it up and took out the foodstuff, biting into it. She hummed happily as she chewed, enjoying the taste. She tried to say as much a moment later, though her words came out garbled because of the food.

Judith swallowed, and gave a sheepish grin, a light blush on her face. "This taste delicious, Margie! Thanks for buying it."

Margaret

"What are friends for?" came Margaret's rhetorical reply to Judith's thanks. She knew that Judith would have done the same for her.

When they arrived at the water fountain, Margaret set the bag of food on the bench beside them, and adopted a more traditional grip on her beverage. Her thumb wasn't hurting from supporting the tea yet, that would take a few hours, but she couldn't actually drink it while balancing it there. Well, she could, just not while holding the bag, and if she wasn't holding the bag then she'd have no reason to continue to balance the drink so precariously.

Hearing her partner's happy humming, it occurred to Margaret that she too needed to eat, at least she assumed she did, and so she reached into the bag and produced a frosted doughnut. The noirette wasn't really one to be concerned with her figure, she wasn't even certain that it was possible for it to change at this point, and even if it was, the exercise from constantly hunting Witches, Yuubey, and Familiars would be able to counteract just about anything.

While the two were chewing, Judith spoke up, unfortunately forgetting to swallow first and not producing a sound that could be translated into English. Margaret glanced over with a single raised eyebrow. A moment later, Judith repeated what she had previously been trying to say, this time clearly. "That's quite alright. I'm glad you enjoy it." Margaret answered simply. She really was happy that the junior Magical Girl was still able to enjoy herself like this, free of any worries about Soul Gems or Witches.

Judith

Judith continued to eat with Margaret for a little time afterward, greatly enjoying the pastries. Finally she and Margie finished most of the food, and were ready to move on.

"Well, I think I'm ready to leave now," Judith commented, as they stood up from the bench. "So, what next...ooh! How about we go ahead and leave for your house, Margie? That way we can prepare for the sleepover tonight!"

Judith was quite enthused with that idea, giving a little smile at the thought of it.

Margaret

For a little while, Margaret ate in silence, further considering her previous subject of thought. Yes, she reasoned, she was right to have refrained from telling Judith. If she had, would they still be able to have happy moments like these? Margaret didn't think so. At best Judith would become like her, at worst... well, Margaret had seen what happened when Magical Girls just couldn't deal with the situation they had been presented.

That was when Judith broke the silence, suggesting that they head over to Margaret's house to get ready for the sleepover. The veteran Puella Magi was fairly certain that most of Judith's things would be at her house, rather than Margaret's, so she wasn't really sure what preparations could be made there. All the same, she'd go along with it. Perhaps Judith was thinking of something that hadn't occurred to her.

Margaret led the way to a fairly small house, tucked away between two, much larger, buildings. It wasn't run down by any means, no place on Kalani Island really did, but it was noticeably less modern than its neighbors. It wasn't the same house they used to live in, when Margaret first became a Magical Girl, and for that she was grateful, even if that was only the case because they'd had to sell the old one. Producing the key from her pocket, Margaret unlocked the door, and gestured for Judith to step inside.

Judith

Judith walked in, and followed Margaret up to her room. Once they arrived, Judith walked over to the bed, taking a seat on it.

"So, what movies do you want to watch this time, Margie?" Judith inquired happily, beaming at her partner. "Do you wanna have a theme tonight, or just pick some movies at random?"

She loved to host a mini-movie night when having sleepovers with Margie, and tonight would prove no exception to that! Not if she could help it, at least. Besides, eating popcorn with Margie and watching some movies together with her sounded like a perfect night to her!

And then maybe later she could try to convince Margie to allow her to braid her hair...Ooh, that would be so fun! And maybe after that they could play twister, or truth or dare? That sounded like a good idea to her! It had been awhile since they last played twister, especially...

Judith gave a light blush, upon remembering what had happened that last time...they ended up falling onto the mat together, with Margaret landing on top of her. At that moment, her face had been so close to Margie's, that Judith had nearly given in to a sudden urge to kiss her then and there...

The green-haired girl cut off that train of thought, not wanting to think of such an embarrassing thing, and rather hoped her friend wouldn't notice her blush. Still...if they did play twister again, a part of her kinda hoped something like that might happen again. It would, ah, be very....n-nice...

Margaret

Margaret's room was sparsely furnished; a desk, a bed, and a chair for the desk. There were no posters on the wall, the bedsheets were clear of not only any specific characters, but any sort of design as well. The sheets were a stark white, and the comforter a dark gray, the bed being so neatly made that it looked as though it were never slept in. The walls were the same shade of egg-white as when they had moved in, the desk was an unpainted wood of some kind, and the desk chair looked like it had been lifted from some office somewhere, which actually wasn't too far from the truth. There was also a dresser in her closet, but the door was currently closed.

The whole room, much like its owner, was practical and entirely focused on its designated purpose.

Margaret took a seat on the chair and swiveled it to face Judith, after taking a moment to straighten the homework on her desk. When Judith asked her question Margaret just shrugged. "As you know, I'm not really much of an expert in that field. I'm sure whatever you think will be a good idea will be though, it always has been."

At least as far as movies were concerned, though to be fair, it was hardly Judith's fault that Margaret was no fun in a game of Truth or Dare, nor was the Twister incident her deliberate doing. Not that that had been entirely unpleasant, even if it were.

Margaret shook her head slightly, unsure quite why her mind had drifted to that particular incident. Focus Margaret. No time for reminiscence. It's entirely possible that Yuubey might come back any minute for some reason, and you need to be ready to snatch him up if he does.

Judith

"Alright! I'll pick the movies myself, then, when I pop on back home to get my things for the sleepover," Judith replied, not really all that surprised by Margaret's answer.

Margie always seemed to trust her judgment on matters like these, or otherwise tried to defer to her own wishes. Or at least, that's how it seemed to Judith. It was actually rather sweet, and she definitely appreciated it. Though she did wish that Margie would be more...herself, or something like that, when asked something like this. Or something like that, at least. It was...hard to put into words.

At any rate, a part of her did wish that Margaret would contribute more to discussions like this...if only to allay her fears that Margie wasn't doing this solely to placate her own desires. The green-haired girl really wanted her friend to have good, genuine fun during their sleepovers and situations like it, and not merely go along with it for her own sake.

But, she wasn't going to bring that up now. Judith didn't quite have the courage to bring up a potentially sensitive topic like that, and she really didn't want to offend Margie, or otherwise imply that she wasn't being a good friend. She'd never want to do that!

"Is there anything else you want to do tonight, Margie?" she decided to inquire, hoping to get her friend to contribute a bit more. "Maybe play Monopoly again? It's been awhile since we did that."

Margaret

Judith was unhappy. Margaret was suddenly certain of it. Well, perhaps that was a bit much. What Margaret was certain of, was that Judith had been at least partially displeased with something, if only for a moment. The noirette might not have had much in the way of social skills beyond being polite, but something she had learned, was how to read her partner. Of course she had, it was a necessity, and Margaret did what was necessary.

But what had caused it? That was something that was currently beyond the elder Puella Magi's ability to discern, especially when it had vanished so quickly. Still though, that sort of thing had to be prevented. Quickly Margaret, display camaraderie. Right, and how exactly did she go about doing that? It wasn't something that could just be switched on and off, and while she was certain that she and Judith did have it, it probably wasn't shining through in Margaret's current demeanor.

"Is there anything else you want to do tonight, Margie? Maybe play Monopoly again? It's been awhile since we did that." Judith asked, before Margaret could think of a suitable question that would lead to Judith telling her what the matter was. Ah, but the green-haired girl had pretty much told her how, hadn't she?

"That sounds lovely Judith. If you don't mind though, I'd also like to see if we could squeeze in a game of Truth and Dare if possible." 'And?' That didn't sound right. Now that she thought on it, it was actually 'or', which actually made a bit more sense. Regardless, this would provide the perfect opportunity to acquire the information she needed. And once Margaret knew what was bothering Judith, she could then deal with it accordingly.

Judith

"That sounds great to me, Margie!" Judith beamed, smiling happily at her partner. Even if it was a small part, she was glad that Margaret finally contributed to something in their sleepover. That was nice!

Judith took a look at her watch, checking the time. She then asked, "Hm, I think now would be a good time to go back home and get my things for the sleepover. I'll be back in half an hour, okay, Margie?"

When Margaret gave her assent, Judith said her goodbyes, and dashed off. She ducked into a secluded place for a moment, and turned herself invisible, using her invisibility to leap and jump to her house in quick order. It might be seen as a frivolous waste of power, true, but Judith didn't think it was that bad. It made the trip fairly quick, and ultimately, there was no harm done, right?

Besides, what was the worst that could happen?

Once Judith arrived home, she dismissed her invisibility, shimmering back into existence. She got inside soon enough, and started to head up to her room.

"Welcome back, Juddy!" her sister Ruth met her from the kitchen, and they started to walk up the stairs together. The younger girl's eyes drifted to the bag Judith carried. "What's that?"

"Oh, nothing much," Judith declared, shifting the bag to her other hand. She wasn't about to let her little sister get an early glimpse at one of her birthday presents. "Just some makeup I got at the mall."

Ruth raised an eyebrow at that, looking rather skeptical of that claim. But she didn't question it any further, at the same time. "Alright...if you say so. By the way, Mom's going out of town! To Honolulu, I think. She'll be gone til Tuesday, so it's just us the next couple days."

Judith paused at that, an annoyed sigh escaping her lips. "Ugh. Really? I have to babysit you in that case, and that means I can't have my sleepover with Margie tonight..."

"I'm old enough to look after myself," Ruth readily retorted, sticking her tongue out at her older sister. "And why don't you have the sleepover here, instead?"

Judith blinked, and a smile rapidly came across her face. "Oh! That's a great idea Ruth! Thanks!"

The green-haired girl eagerly hugged her sister, quite happy with this idea. Yes, that would work perfectly! They'd still have Ruth around, true...but that wouldn't be too bad, now would it?

"So...since I'm your favorite sister and all, can I join in on the sleepover too? Please?" Ruth eagerly inquired, once they separated, giving her sister a pleading stare to maximize her chances.

Judith pursed her lips, but she instantly knew she couldn't say no to that look. She sighed, and nodded her head yes, eliciting a happy cheer from her little sister.

"Fine, fine. Just don't bug us too much, Ruth," Judith ordered half-hardheartedly, smiling at her sister. Ruth scowled at that and crossed her arms.

"Hey, I'm not a little kid anymore! I can hang out with older girls like you and Margie just fine!" the purple-haired girl protested, glaring at her sister. Judith giggled at her overreaction, and reached over with a hand, ruffling her hair.

"I know, I know. You're a big girl now Ruth. I know I can trust you not to be too big a brat." she teased, sticking her tongue out.

Ruth pouted further at that, causing Judith to giggle even more. Her sister looked so cute when she was pretending to be angry!

"Anyway, I'd better call Margie now. Thanks for the idea, Sis!" Judith went on, smiling brightly at her little sister. Ruth smiled back and continued her way up the stairs, while Judith got out her cell phone, dialing Margaret's number.

"Hey, Margie?" Judith began, after the older girl answered. "Turns out my Mom is going out of town this weekend, and wants me to babysit Ruth while she's gone. Think we can have the sleepover at my place instead? If you don't mind?"

Margaret

Margaret wasn't entirely certain why Judith perked up so much suddenly, but bid her a temporary farewell without asking about it. The moment Judith was a suitable distance away, however, Margaret dashed outside and to the nearest payphone. As it turned out, with this being the year 2048, when almost literally everyone had cellphones, the nearest one was a good ways away. Regardless, Margaret made good time, and arrived shortly. Unable to find a coin in the immediate vicinity, she just used a compressed form of her shield to fake a few quarters.

"Hello, North Kalani High School." Came the receptionists voice. Perhaps receptionist wasn't actually her job title, but for the moment it was beyond Margaret to say exactly what it was instead. Either way, it was the only one the school had, and that would work nicely in Margaret's favor here.

"Hello Elizabeth, this is Margaret Faust. I'm not sure you remember me, but we've talked a few times while my mom sorted out some things in the office. I'm terribly sorry to have to ask you this, but would you mind looking something up for me?"

"Margaret Faust? Goodness, it's nice to hear from you again. I must say, I was a bit worried about you, last we spoke. How's your dad holdin' up?" Margaret never could quite identify the specific region from which Elizabeth's accent originated. It was quite clearly from somewhere in the southern United States, but that was about the best she could gather. More importantly, it seemed that the receptionist did indeed remember her.

"About as well as can be expected for someone in his position." Margaret answered truthfully. Actually the man retained a pretty high level of clarity for someone who had been locked up in a mental institution for nearly two years. "Anyway, I apologize if I seem a bit abrupt, but I'm running an important errand for a friend, and I really need your assistance."

"Sure thing, hon, what do you need?"

"Well, my friend is on the track team with Aolani Stevens, and, since their lockers in the changing room are so close together, she ended up accidentally taking Aolani's bag instead of her own. Presumably, Aolani has hers as well. Unfortunately, my friend's homework is in her bag, and some of it's due tomorrow. She can't go pick it up herself due to a prior engagement, so she asked me to instead." Margaret paused for effect, and also to take a breath. To help the illusion of being in a rush to help her friend, and arguably she actually was, she had said all that in one breath. "The problem is, I don't actually know where Aolani lives, and my friend's phone is in her bag, so I can't call her."

"So you want me to tell you, I gather?" Elizabeth asked. Thinking the question rhetorical, Margaret didn't answer. After what was perhaps a deliberately longer pause than was strictly necessary, she spoke again. "I'll tell you, but I'm not getting involved with anything clandestine, am I?"

"Actually," Margaret said rather flatly, "you'll probably be helping me bring about the inevitable heat death of the universe in a slightly expedited fashion, as compared to what it would be otherwise."

While she had expected the elderly woman to laugh at what she had just said, or perhaps merely be confused, she replied in complete seriousness with "But doesn't that operate on the assumption that we live in both a finite universe. as well as one in which the level of entropy increases faster than the rate of the value of maximum entropy?"

Margaret had nothing to say to this, and, after a moment, Elizabeth merely chuckled and told her the address, stating first though that Margaret did not hear it from her, and then telling her to have a nice day, and hanging up. And so, the Puella Magi made her way to Aolani's house.

The reason of course that she had asked for Aolani's address rather than Chiyo's were, firstly, that she could hardly ask for both without seeming suspicious, and that Aolani was probably the better bet due to it being easier to come up with an excuse to find her, she would be less likely to be a target than the other one, and because Aolani was likely to be harder for Yuubey to convince than her naive friend.

She arrived stealthily in the backyard to see the Incubator sitting on the edge of an upstairs windowsill, presumably spying upon the residents within, though of course that isn't how he'd put it. She wasn't surprised to see he was here. Actually, he was exactly what she had come for. When the thing went to jump down from the second floor, Margaret assumed that this meant whoever he was watching was going downstairs, the noirette moved quickly, darting out of the shadows to where Yuubey would have otherwise landed, and catching him by the throat.

Yuubey

The Incubator gave a weary-sounding sigh, though whether or not weariness was actually an emotion, and thus inaccessible to him, was anyone's guess. "Hello, Margaret Faust."

He considered explaining how he had already told them all at the food court that he'd be following Chiyo, something which Aolani had not technically warned him off of, alone did not necessarily mean unfollowed, and he had told them that he'd be waiting to grant a wish at a moment's notice. He considered trying to explain again to her the necessity of Magical Girls to combat the entropic forces of the universe and keep things running a while longer. He even considered just asking her to put him down.

Yuubey considered a lot of responses in addition to his greeting, all of which would have likely gotten nowhere, but didn't have the chance to actually use them, as Margaret's phone rang. Causing her to swiftly disappear out of the yard on the off chance that anyone could possibly have heard it, dragging him along as well.

Then, while he was fairly certain that it was rude by human standards to do so at this time, Margaret answered.

Margaret

"Hello?" Despite all the running about she'd been doing, as well as her irritation with Yuubey, Margaret's voice was as even and composed as ever.

"Hey, Margie?" Judith answered, "Turns out my Mom is going out of town this weekend, and wants me to babysit Ruth while she's gone. Think we can have the sleepover at my place instead? If you don't mind?"

"Not at all. I shall be over shortly, though I'll have to stop by my house first to collect my things. I had to run out and get something." Her hand that wasn't on the phone tightened, and Yuubey squirmed a bit. "Ah, sorry to be so brief, but it seems Yuubey wants to tell me something. It seems rather urgent. Talk to you later," yes, she was fairly certain that was the assurance that young people were using these days, "Goodbye." A click, and the phone was turned off and put away, leaving just the two of them standing just out of sight from the Malo household.

"You're crushing my neck, in case you didn't know that already." Margaret loosened her grip, ever so slightly. After a pause, in which neither said anything, the Incubator spoke again. "Margaret, this isn't really in a stage where you can do anything about it. They're just considering their options at the moment, and I agreed to keep my distance for now unless called for. While I still can't claim to fully understand your motivation in doing these things, surely you see that this is a time where interfering would be detrimental to both our goals."

Well, he was right about that much at least. He probably wouldn't do anything until called upon, she had never known him to lie outright before, and Aolani had seemed as though she were truly going to give this a great deal of thought. More importantly however, the sleepover plans had changed, and there was no way that she was bringing him in a situation where he and Ruth would be in the same building for an extended period of time, with the possibility of him slipping away from her.

So, Margaret released her grip on Yuubey, letting him fall nimbly the rest of the way to the ground, where he gave a catlike stretch and plodded off back towards the house without so much as a backward glance.

Margaret had somewhere to be as well, and so she set off for home.

Judith

"Alright, see you later, Margie!" Judith cheerily replied, as her friend hung up. She stowed her phone away, and continued the journey to her room, opening up her bedroom door.

Her room was much the same as she had left it that very morning. The bed was unmade (something she normally did, but forgot to do in her rush early this morning), but other than that, there weren't any flaws in the room. Indeed, her bedroom showed a great deal about its resident. She had a few posters about displaying pictures from Disney movies, old and new. She even had an entire dvd self that was filled with Disney films, as well as other animated motion pictures.

Some might have called her childish for still liking 'cartoons', but Judith loved animation, all the same. She wasn't entirely certain about most foreign animation, truthfully; in fact, she was rather iffy about 'anime' and stuff like that. The less savory aspects of that kind of animation kind of put her off. But American animation, especially feature films made by Disney and other similar studios, she absolutely adored them. She had grown up watching those sorts of movies as a child, and that obsession continued with her to this day.

It probably said a lot about her, come to think. And it especially explained her bubbly attitude. Or at least, Judith thought so.

After studying her room for a bit, Judith set about tidying up her room, so that it'd be picture perfect for her sleepover with Margie tonight. It had been a long time since they had slept over at her own house, and Judith wasn't about to disappoint! Her room would be absolutely perfect for Margie, no matter what!

Margaret

"Hello, Ruth. Thank you, it's nice to see you as well." Margaret answered Judith's sister. It wasn't entirely just her being polite either. Perhaps she was a bit biased, but Margaret quite liked Ruth.

"Juddy's upstairs, probably cleaning her room. Go ahead and meet her up there! I'm sure she won't mind. Oh, and she said it'd be okay if I joined you in your sleepover. If that's uh, fine with you, Margaret. I don't mind if you don't want me to hang around..." Margaret shook her head slightly. "I don't mind at all, Ruth, and thank you, I'll go see if she'd like any help. Please feel free to join us."

Perhaps that last was a bit of an assumption on Margaret's part that Judith would have no problem with Ruth being in her room, though it was hardly as though she hadn't been there before, and she was invited to the sleepover that would presumably take place there, but there it was. The noirette also wasn't entirely certain what, if anything, her lack of inflection lent to her words, but she kept a small polite smile on her face, as she nearly always did when interacting with members of Judith's family. This too, however, was not entirely feigned; she genuinely did like them, she just had less direct emotional attachment to them than she did Judith herself.

So Margaret ascended the stairs, stopping front of Judith's room, gave the door two light knocks, it was an inside door, not an outside one after all, and waited to hear Judith answer.

Judith

The door opened up a second later, as Judith peeked out. Her eyes widened momentarily, before a large smile spread across her face. She opened her door fully, and stepped aside to let Margaret enter.

"Margie! I'm glad to see you're here; I was wondering when you'd arrive!" Judith beamed, as she gave her friend a brief hug. "Go ahead and set your stuff on my bed; I've pretty much finished cleaning up, so it won't be a problem."

Judith closed the door behind them, and let her partner set aside her supplies for the sleepover--which, knowing her, most likely consisted of just the bare essentials. Not that Judith really minded at all.

"I'm sorry about switching locations all of a sudden," the green-haired girl apologized, running a hand through her hair. "Hope you don't mind..."

Margaret

Margaret's still polite smile widened, if just a tiny bit, and she set her bag on the corner of Judith's bed, and standing next to it. "It's quite alright, Judith. I really don't mind at all." This was true. While it was slightly worrisome to have Yuubey out of her reach, she at least wouldn't have to concern herself with keeping an eye on him. She might even be able to allow herself to sleep. That is of course assuming she could sleep with him out there unsupervised.

Well, regardless of all that, the situation was what it was, and there was little she could do at the moment to change it for the better. Here is where the sleepover would take place, she couldn't call it off, and here was one place that Yuubey would certainly not be, even with her here to watch him like a hawk.

Looking about the room for anything her friend might not have gotten to yet in her cleanup, Margaret asked "Would you like my help, by the way?"

Judith

"Sure! I was actually just about to grab an extra pillow from the closet, for tonight. Would you mind keeping the door open for me?" Judith inquired with a demure smile. It wasn't much, admittedly, but she felt like she should give Margie something to do, given that she was pretty much done with the cleaning.

Once her friend agreed, Judith walked over to her closet, pushing it open with one hand. She rummaged in it while Margaret kept it open for her, stretching herself so she could reach the pillow at the top of the closet. Hm. She should really tell Mom to stop placing stuff at the very top shelf of the closet; she wasn't tall enough to comfortably reach it...

The green-haired girl finally reached it, and grabbed it, pulling it toward her. However, the pillow knocked something off from the top shelf as she got it, sending a group of books falling to the floor.

Judith jumped slightly, and got out of the way of the falling books, clutching the pillow protectively. After a moment, she started to reach down to pick them back up, but froze, recognizing them instantly.

Oh God. No. No. No. Nononononononononononononono--!

The cover of one of the books, which just so happened to be right in Margaret's eyesight, displayed a drawn image of two teenage women kissing rather aggressively, and groping each other in an explicit manner.

A strangled gasp escaped Judith's throat as she stared down at her fallen porn stash, frozen with absolute horror.

Oh god. This...oh god....

Margaret

Margaret's first instinct was to step forward to protect her Puella Magi partner from whatever was descending upon her. Not that even the weakest of Magical Girls, which Judith was most certainly not- actually, in terms of raw power, she might very well be stronger than Margaret herself- had ever been permanently harmed by falling books. As it turned out, however, her swift reaction was unnecessary for another reason as well, namely that Judith moved out of the way.

Of course, Margaret then moved to help pick up, but was given pause by what she saw on the cover of one of them.

... huh.

Actually, thinking back on it, this did make sense, when she considered some of the things that Judith had said or done in the past. It also explained a few things, such as her failure to express interest in any boys, something Margaret had come to expect from her classmates. Margaret's polite smile became a grin of barely concealed amusement, which, her being her, actually didn't mean much change in facial expression. Her amusement was not at the green-haired girl's newly revealed sexuality of course, Margaret herself didn't really have much opinion on such things in general, other than that it was none of her concern, but rather at how it was revealed.

While she said nothing for the moment, even the veteran Puella Magi, normally not one to tease, couldn't resist looking over at Judith with a single raised eyebrow, before she knelt down to start picking the books up. Margaret's face was a bit pink, looking at the books, but there were more important things to be done than concern herself with that. "I assume you'll want these back out of sight before Ruth comes in, yes?"

Judith

"Y-Yes!" Judith stuttered out, her face tinged a dark crimson red. The younger Puella Magi stood frozen, her embarrassment and horror rooting her in place.

When Margaret was finally done putting her illicit collection away, Judith finally looked away, staring down pointedly at the floor, still very much mortified by the whole situation.

Oh god! This...how could this have happened?! How?! She'd always been so careful in the past to not have anyone ever discover her...collection, but now Margie knew! Oh gawd, this was...she...

Judith gave a groan, and buried her face in her palms.

"I-I'm sorry for being such a pervert, Margie..." Judith mumbled, her voice slightly distorted with her mouth covered up by her hands. "Oh god, I never thought this would happen...ugh, you must think I'm such a depraved pervert, or something..."

Margaret

Though non-verbal communication was hardly a strong suit of Margaret's, she reached out and put a hand on her friend's shoulder before speaking, hopefully encouraging her to look up. "Not at all, Judith. It's not in the least uncommon for girls your age." And her age as well, considering they were only a year apart, not that this occurred to the elder Puella Magi.

While Judith's hands were still in front of her face, Margaret took the opportunity to get a look at her partner's Soul Gem in ring form. Neither embarrassment nor shame was despair, but Margaret was cautious. She didn't know whether either of these emotions, if either technically counted as one, stained a Soul Gem, but she would be ready to take whatever emergency action was necessary if the green began to darken.

Something that should be made clear however, is that Margaret's concern for Judith's emotional state was not, and never had been, exclusively because of the effect it could have on her safety. Margaret truly cared about the green-haired girls happiness for its own sake as well, it was just that her concern for her well-being was added on top of that.