Madoka gasped, her lungs feeling sharp like she shouldn't have breathed. A hand touched her shoulder and she looked around wildly before she realized the troupe leader was there. She was in her traveling wagon, the morning sun spreading light throughout the room.

"You are all right," he said. "You are alive."

Madoka didn't feel like it, for it felt like her heart was replaced by a silent thing. She looked down and saw that it was indeed still there, but looked different. It had never truly fit until now. Madoka wound it up anyway, feeling strange that the key didn't give any relief. There was no dire need for it anymore.

"Where is Homura?" she asked the troupe leader.

"She just left to go to the train station," he replied.

Madoka threw the blanket off her, and she ran. She ran through the troupe, over the bridge and through Silverkeep. It should have hurt before but now she ran like the wind, unhindered by anything. Before long she could see the train platform and the lone figure standing there.

Madoka ran up the stairs and yelled her name, Homura turning and looking as if she had seen a ghost. But the look twisted into something stern again.

"Don't overexert yourself-"

"I had to explain before you left again-" Madoka had her hands on Homura's shoulders.

"I thought I lost you," Homura shouted back.

Madoka just looked at her. She let go and said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for scaring you."

"I should say that I'm sorry," Homura said. "What I said yesterday, it wasn't fair to you. I didn't let you talk."

"I should have told you who I was," Madoka said. "I shouldn't have tricked you."

"The troupe leader explained it to me," Homura said. She let out a light chuckle. "He said at the end of it that we should really talk more."

"Then why didn't you wait?"

"You weren't waking up," Homura said. "We didn't have a lot of options. Nobody in Silverkeep could work on a clock heart and I was going to get help in Roselake."

"Ah," Madoka said. "Today is my birthday. My heart matured, you remember don't you?"

"I do now," Homura said. "But I want to ask you. Why didn't you tell me who you were?"

Madoka averted her gaze, her hand grazing the back of her neck. "Do you… remember when we made that promise?" At Homura's nod she continued. "I've been traveling for two years and I never found someone with a clock heart. When I saw you I thought that you would be disappointed in me."

"I wouldn't ever feel that way," Homura said. "I still don't know much about hearts but I know from you how rare clock hearts are."

Madoka's hand rubbed the back of her neck. The warmth in her face deepened. "I'm, um. I'm truly sorry. I was being foolish."

"A little," Homura said. "But I was the one walking around without glasses. So we are both foolish."

Madoka chuckled. There was a brief silence.

"What do you want to do?" Homura asked. "We can look for that person together."

"I think," Madoka said, "I want to go home. Not forever, but I want to let everyone know I'm okay. Work on hearts again."

After some words with the troupe leader about leaving and packing Madoka's things they were on a train to Roselake. Everything had changed in a day, but she was glad to be going back home. Still, the wanderlust hadn't fully freed her, so they could go out there again someday.

She rested a hand on top of Homura's.

"I never found someone with a clock heart," she said. "But I found you. And that's better."

"I'm glad I found you."

"If you don't mind," Madoka said, "We could finish our promise. I found myself, so maybe that counts for something."

Homura leaned in to kiss her and Madoka thought that those six months of jumping at every sound and glance of black hair or a red dress were worth it for this moment.

When they arrived in Roselake, after the reunions and the questions and jubilance, it was decided that Homura could live with Mami if she helped get materials and supplies for the workshop. In the time Madoka was gone Mami had taken it over and her parents retired, though they occasionally came in to help them refine their skills.

Madoka relayed her message to Sayaka that she should go visit Kyoko to which Sayaka rolled her eyes and laughed. But she did visit a few weeks later and came back with an armload of copper hearts, because Kyoko figured this would be the best belated birthday present for Madoka.

Madoka accepted it and said that she would go with Sayaka next time.

Mami had her work on people that were the least sick or injured so that she could practice. The first day was a shock because stuffed dolls did not bleed and it hadn't hit Madoka fully that she would be seeing a real heart. It made her nauseous but Mami guided her through it and with about eighty percent of the work handled by Mami the patient had a copper heart.

The second time was easier. There was still too much blood and she was nervous about taking out the diseased heart that was there but Mami helped her again and it was easier to put in the new heart. Still, Madoka was glad that the patients were put under chloroform and numbing agents so they could not feel their afflicted hearts being replaced.

She was thankful that she received her clock heart when she was a baby.

Homura was also tasked with sanitizing their gloves and instruments afterwards though she was adamant in never stepping in to look as they worked on a patient. She would stick to minimal blood, thank you very much.

Sayaka did visit once, out of morbid curiosity. Before they had even gotten to work on cutting open the area where the heart was she left the room to stay with the patient's mother and give her some refreshments while she waited.

Overtime it got easier and Madoka was trusted to work alone. She had ceased asking her question, but it was always in the back of her mind.

A few years later, when it was spring time and the lake was still too cold to swim in, Madoka was alone at the workshop. Mami's parents had moved to Woolhope some time before, and Mami, Sayaka and Homura were going to visit them. Homura wanted some good memories of that place, and Madoka had volunteered to stay behind in case somebody needed a heart.

It was a quiet day. Madoka was practicing on the stuffed dolls because she had nothing else to do except perfect her skill when there was knocking at the door, so frenzied and frantic that she thought the door would be broken down. She opened it to see a man dressed in the style of Amberway clothes, holding a bundle in his arms.

"Help me, my son needs a heart, I'll pay any price, please," his voice was strained with panic.

"I will help," Madoka said, taking the bundle. She headed to the workshop and undid the blanket from the baby, a small, silent thing with a toothless mouth and a shock of dark hair on his head. She set him down on the table, put on her apron and gloves and took a stethoscope to listen to his heart, her own seized with anxiety when she realized that the heart beats were too far apart.

He would need a clock heart.

Madoka got to work quickly, doing the necessary procedure for the baby to prepare him for the transfer. She propped him up so that she could have better access to the heart and cut. She saw the afflicted heart and held her breath, cutting the valves and sliding out the tiny organ. She set in the mechanisms for the clock heart, closed it with the front of the clock and twisted the key to make the gears turn into motion.

After a few seconds the clock heart began to tick and the baby finally made a noise, letting out a low wail.

Madoka let her breath go and began to gently wash away the blood with a washcloth.

"It's okay. The worst is over," she said as she let him rest on the table as she took off her bloody apron. She didn't want to frighten the father to death. She took the blanket and wrapped it around him, making shushing noises.

When the wail passed his eyes looked around curiously, his freed hands reaching. His gaze eventually focused on Madoka and he ineffectually hit one of his tiny hands against the bottom of her heart.

"Oh," Madoka said quietly. She held the baby closer.

"Don't worry. Don't worry, you'll be all right. You're already so loved."

She held onto this moment for a little while longer. Then Madoka took the key, the same bronze color as hers, and returned the baby to his father, who was overcome with joy.

Madoka managed to tell him the three rules of the clock heart, but the addendum was forgotten when the man tried to give her the payment.

"Is this too little?" He asked, holding out the big handful of gold coins.

"If anything, it's too much!" Madoka said. "I can't accept this."

"No, it's worth it. Please, take it."

Madoka took the coins hopelessly, and went to the workshop to count out the actual price. When she returned to the front the man was gone. Madoka rubbed a hand against her face and decided that if the man was happy with the amount then she was happy.

She reflected on what happened, and a laugh escaped her, a little loose and frantic. She stumbled to a chair and fell into it, her hand against her forehead and small laughs following. She rubbed her knuckles against her watering eyes, the tears making saltwater trails down her face.

When Mami, Sayaka and Homura returned Madoka had finished crying, but her eyes were puffy and her face still slightly red. When questioned the tears started again and she could only say, "The baby," and Sayaka said what the others were thinking; that a baby had died when a heart transfer failed and she went to console Madoka.

After she dried her tears a second time Madoka explained the truth, which earned a sigh of relief from the others. There was a lot of talking, Mami wanting to know how it went, Sayaka finding the coins and asking where they came from and Homura wondering if this meant that their promise was finally fulfilled.

Madoka explained it all. It didn't hit her until later that her question had finally been answered.

In the following years Madoka didn't encounter another person that needed a clock heart or already had one. But as she told Homura on the train on her eighteenth birthday it was okay because she found Homura again.

Madoka hadn't really conquered her wanderlust just yet. She did visit Kyoko with Sayaka, to which Kyoko wanted to see the workshop and didn't mind seeing someone get a heart transfer. She said that she had seen plenty of them in Hirane, and then goaded Sayaka in telling them why she had stayed away from rope hearts in Ship Haven. Sayaka finally came to the conclusion that blood was better to think about when it was not everywhere. Madoka had to agree with that.

And still she traveled further and further, looking for different kinds of hearts to learn about. Homura had accompanied her, and sometimes Mami or Sayaka would catch up with them so that they could see more of the world too. Mami thought that the spirit of the girl decided to visit them all and make them want to travel. Madoka replied that she wouldn't mind if the girl visited her until she got old and wouldn't be able to walk far enough anymore.

Sayaka thought that she would travel until Death decided that was enough walking.

Madoka felt somewhat savvy when she traveled again to places she had already been and had never visited. She no longer asked her question, but she allowed her heart to peek out a little from her jacket and she let others draw their own conclusions. Homura was able to learn about the numerous hearts as well and she even practiced a little on stuffed dolls, eventually giving a doll a heart made of flint successfully.

Truth to be told, when Madoka was free to travel without any questions or to look for someone special she felt like she could live up to what Sayaka said. With Homura by her side it felt like she wouldn't come back home for a very long time.

But something did cause her to go back to Roselake. When Madoka and Homura were deep up north in Dalry, learning about sugar hearts, Homura asked Madoka to marry her.
They managed to return home in time for the summer to arrive and were wed by the lake where they made their promise ten years ago.

They traveled less frequently, never going further than Hirane. Madoka became too busy with helping Mami at the workshop and Homura had decided to tutor violin for the children that went to the school they all went to.

But when they became much older, Homura's hair more grey than black, the two of them traveled to Silverkeep together one last time. Not much had changed since they were last there, many years ago, but the town had expanded so that a proper place for the traveling troupe that kept up the traditions. The two feuding families had since ended their feud, which Madoka thought was a relief.

When it became dusk and they were nearby the traveling troupe Homura took Madoka's hand and asked, "Would you like to dance?"

"I would," Madoka said. They danced together even when the moon was high in the sky and the music faded as the musicians and other dancers slowly left.

"I love you," Homura said when they stopped and rested by the lake, the water holding a reflection of the moon.

"I love you, too," Madoka replied. She moved closer and rested against Homura's shoulder. She imagined the boy and the girl dancing in the moon, looking over them.

A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on June 3 2017 – June 21 2017

Thank you for reading this.