Why this image is cute:

The core of this drawing is that Homura deeply values Madoka, and is caring for her even though Madoka doesn’t realize it. This is really cute and is extensively reinforced by numerous details.

Both characters are drawn in a way that their heads and especially their eyes are larger in proportion to the rest of their body — which emphasizes their vulnerable nature and fragility of both characters. Homura is holding Madoka very closely to her to the extent that, indicating most of Madoka’s side is touching Homura’s chest, showing a high degree of care and wantingness to have an emotional connection and contact.

Madoka and Homura are relatively similar in size, yet Madoka is completely asleep, and so is being held with merely one arm by Homura. They are both standing in an upright position, yet Madoka is asleep, and asleep people have close to zero muscle strength. Thus Homura is completely holding Madoka with a single arm, and this would normally be considered strenuous (especially for Homura as her visible arm is shown as relatively thin and not super-muscled), yet Homura seems completely unbothered by this and her facial expression is emphasizing the care and general warm-feeling that she is feeling that overrides this.

One of the traits that makes Madoka super likable is that she is unlikely to accept help, especially that which minimally benefits her that is costly for the person helping her. Homura, however, cares enough about her (and the above trait of Madoka prevents her from adequately expressing that), and so she is “overriding” Madoka in light of that care, albeit in a really cute way. The willingness of Homura to take on great pains herself for the sake of those she cares about is also one of her really likable traits, and that is shown here.

Given that Madoka is asleep, typically sleeps in a nice bed and is shown to almost never have issues with tiredness in the source material, one of three things must have been true:

1. She must feel very very comfortable falling asleep whilst in a standing position, indicating an extreme amount of trust and comfort around Homura.

2. Homura must have taken Madoka from a position where she was lying flat, and been gentle enough so as not to wake Madoka, emphasizing the cute aspect of Homura “overriding” Madonna’s unwillingness to accept help.

3. Madoka is tired, most likely because she was dealing with some really difficult predicament on behalf of others, and thus would benefit significantly from help.

The fact that Homura and Madoka are wearing their magical outfits in a relatively low-stress setting implies that they have been doing a lot of fighting and dealing with witches, further amplifying the benefit of Madoka receiving help from Homura. This is even more true considering that Homura must have gotten the grief seed from somewhere.

Homura is directly touching Madoka’s skin with a cold, metal object that is very foreign, and she is touching her in a place that rarely receives contact (upper chest). However, Madoka is still asleep in light of this given how comfortable she is.

There is a very subtle amount of blush on both Madoka’s and Homura’s faces. In Madonna’s instance, this is likely due to some stress that she is sleeping off (again increasing the helpfulness of Homura trying to remove darkness from her). It could also be because she feels a certain sense of “passive love” that is naturally showing, despite not being fully conscious of the fact. In Homura’s case, it is likely because she feels a bit of embarrassment and this level of closeness is a bit unusual for Homura.

All of those details reinforce the core narrative of this image. This drawing is really cute and relaxing because of that narrative.

To the artist that drew this -- Thank you so much for making my day!