After searching for hours Setsuna finally found the ever-elusive Konoka Konoe. "Konoka!" She exclaimed walking over to a drenched girl setting against a tree. The sodden girl lazily looked over at the other, and smiled dreamily, not really aware of the situation. "Are you okay?" Setsuna said running over to the girl. "Yeah, Secchan, I'm alright." Konoka said attempting to stand, only to fall over.
"Konoka!" Setsuna said catching the trembling brown haired girl in her embrace, picked her up, and felt her rosy face. Konoka had a very high fever and her breathing was labored. She was apparently not 'alright' at all. "Konoka…" the raven-haired samurai whispered brushing her friend's wet bangs off of her warm face.
The girl in her arms didn't even stir; Setsuna was beginning to worry, so she quickly hurried off to her dorm room with the shivering girl clutched tightly in her grasp. When she reached the confines of her dorm room she immediately turned off the air and opened the windows to let the warm, humid air from outside infiltrate her room to warm it up so Konoka wouldn't catch pneumonia.
Setsuna laid the sodden girl on her couch; not caring how wet it would get, got up, and wet a washcloth with warm water to help her fever. She knew that her friend wouldn't get warmed up with those wet clothes on so she clumsily undressed her from the wet clothes and put on a warm, dry T-shirt in their place. Since her couch was now soaked, she moved Konoka to her bed, draped the comforter over her weak figure, and placed the warm cloth on her forehead once again.
After a few hours of switching out the cloth, and almost nodding off, the sun peaked above the horizon. Setsuna had finished all of that homework she didn't think she'd have time for, but lo and behold, all of it was completed with perfect precision. Since morning was breaking Setsuna made herself a pot of coffee, and did her morning exercises.
She knew she wasn't going to school that day, so she decided to call Asuna and tell her what happened so she wouldn't think that she'd gone and disappeared in the same manner Konoka had done three days before. Asuna was relieved Konoka was relatively okay and thankful that Setsuna had found her.
Setsuna returned to her seat beside her bed and looked over the sleeping girl. Her fever had gone down quite a bit in the last hour or so, but Setsuna stayed ever vigilant for any change in her friend's condition.
Upon reaching the hour of ten O'clock Setsuna decided she'd try to wake her friend so she could eat, or drink something. "Konoka…" Setsuna whispered, gently moving her bangs out of her face as she removed the cloth there. She softly moved her hand down the brown haired girl's cheek to her shoulder.
"Konoka…" she whispered a little louder and lightly shook her shoulder. Konoka groaned and stirred a bit. "Secchan?" she said dryly moving her hand up to shield her eyes from the offensive light sun light pouring into the room. "Oh, sorry." Setsuna said, reaching over her bed and closed the blinds darkening the room a bit, helping her friend see a bit better.
"Would you like some food or water?" Setsuna asked setting back into the chair. "Yes, please. Water and a piece of toast would be nice." Konoka said setting up in the warm bed, stretching her arms and yawning. "Right away!" Setsuna said standing up and walking to the kitchenette in her dorm.
In a few minutes Setsuna walked back over to the brown haired princess to find that she'd lightly dozed off while setting up. "Kono-chan…" Setsuna said, softly nudging her friend. Konoka's eyes opened upon the light touch from her knight. "Secchan, thank you." Konoka dryly whispered taking the glass of water and gulping it down in one quick swig.
Setsuna smiled at her friend as she brought the glass down from her lips. "What?" Konoka said grabbing for the toast on her lap. "Was it good?" Setsuna asked. "Why, did you put something in it?" Konoka said with a strange, adorable, look on her face. This caused Setsuna to slightly laugh.
"No, you just drank it so quickly, I didn't know if you actually tasted it was a berry flavor." Setsuna said watching as Konoka chomped on the dry toast in her hands. "Ohw, rerry?" Konoka said through a mouth full of toast. "Don't eat so quickly, Konoka, you'll get sick." Setsuna said, snatching the unfinished half of toast from Konoka's grasp.
"Secchan!!" Konoka said grabbing for her fleeing banquet. "Ah!" Setsuna said raising a finger. "Here…" She finished, pulling off a much smaller piece of toast than Konoka just devoured whole. Konoka groaned in protest while she furrowed her brow, but took the piece of toast anyway and ate it much slower than the last piece.
While Konoka worked on her toast, Setsuna got up and walked into her kitchen again to fill up Konoka's empty glass. She sat the glass down next to her friend, as well as the rest of the toast, and went digging through her closet for something. This struck a curious glance from Konoka.
"Whacha up to?" Konoka said while munching on her toast. Setsuna turned from the closet with a towel and a large button down shirt in her hand. "You should shower." Setsuna said, laying the towel and shirt on the foot of the bed. "Are you saying I smell or something?" Konoka said with a giggle. "N-no… It's just… your fever broke and you were sweaty… and…" Setsuna said, a blush grew ever darker on her visage as her voice died off from her stutter.
"Okay, I'll see you in a minute I guess." Konoka said after a minute or so of watching the raven-haired girl. She stood up and made her way to the small western-style shower room in Setsuna's room.
While Konoka was in the shower Setsuna sighed to herself. 'I told Asuna I'd try to stop doing that.' She thought, standing up and pulling the sheets off the bed to be washed later, and commenced to put fresh ones on. She also closed the windows to block the now hot, humid, muggy air from entering her room any further.
After she'd made her bed to her liking, Setsuna turned on her air, made herself some warm tea, and sat on the couch with a good book. Before she realized it, her sight had blurred and the unconscious realm grasped her with a welcomed embrace.
Konoka got out of the shower, clothed herself, and brushed her hair from it's knotty wet mess that you're blessed with when you have long hair, then left the bathroom for the larger room. She received a chilling blast of air as she left the warmth of the smaller room.
"Secchan, it's freezing in here!" Konoka gasped; she quickly walked to the air dial and turned it off. "Secchan, are you--" Konoka started, but stopped in mid-sentence upon the sight of the room's other occupant, now curled up and asleep on the couch. The female Magi smiled and carefully draped a light cover over her friend's slumbering form, then she lightly smoothed the feather-like raven hair out of her face, and quietly laid the book Setsuna had been reading on the side table.
'She must've been watching over me all night…' Konoka thought, a warm smile graced her lips. She walked over to the kitchen and began to think of something she could make for them to eat; as she thought, there wasn't much but slightly stale cereal and some water in the fridge. Konoka sighed and quietly left the room to gather things from her dorm to cook.
After a while, Konoka snuck back into Setsuna's room to see that the owner had fallen off of the couch in a most uncomfortable looking way: her hand was twisted behind her back as well as the blanket that was now in disarray after being tangled in Setsuna's legs. "Secchan!" Konoka breathed and ran to her fallen friend.
Setsuna stayed in her deep slumbering state as Konoka, as gently as she could manage, put her back on the couch. "There we are, Secchan." Konoka whispered as she placed the light blanket back over the muscular figure of the samurai woman. After putting Setsuna to rest, Konoka commenced to cook some food for the both of them.
An hour or so later, Setsuna woke up to the sweet smell of something cooking in her kitchen. 'What is that?' she thought sniffing into the air, and a familiar giggle rang through her room. "Konoka…" Setsuna said looking over at the brown haired girl. "Yes?" Konoka answered with her bright smile. "What's that wondrous smell?" Setsuna questioned in taking another deep breath of air.
"It's called lunch, Secchan, not something you have every day I guess." Konoka said walking to the kitchen from her spot behind the couch to make a bowl of the food. Upon the wait of a few minute's time Konoka came back to the couch with two bowls of steaming soup, and sat them on the table. "Eat up!" Konoka said, lifting her spoon to her bowl then her mouth and sipped the hot liquid carefully so she wouldn't burn herself. Setsuna sat and watched for a minute then continued on to sip her own.
"So, Secchan…" Konoka said after a while. "Hmm?" Setsuna answered. "Did I worry you?" Konoka asked, sadness clouding her usually bright eyes. "Yeah, you did. When you just disappeared, and no one knew where you'd gone, I made it my job to look for you. It was raining for the great deal of those days… I was lucky that I found you when I did." Setsuna said settling back into the couch.
"I'm so sorry." Konoka said, tears welling in her eyes. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're okay. Shizuna-sensei came by earlier and said you were doing all right now, though she thinks you should stay home for a few days. She also said that she'd come by some time after school to check up on you." Setsuna said, Konoka sighed.
"So many people are worried about me." She said. "It's just because I'm the 'Next Heir to the Associations'." "That's not true!" Setsuna started, startling Konoka and caused her to look at the girl setting next to her. "Even if you weren't the heir to anything, I would still be worried about you!" Setsuna finished with valor burning in her eyes.
Konoka noticed this and smiled. "I know you would, but if you think about it, if I wasn't such a 'special' person, you would've never met me in the first place." Konoka said with loneliness in her eyes, as well as a flicker of fear. "Not true!" Setsuna said, causing Konoka's gaze to flick back to her once again. "I…I feel that even if we hadn't met then… I'm sure we would've met somewhere else… I feel as though were de—uh… I mean… I just think we may've still come to know each other…" Setsuna said turning away to hide the bright blush gracing her features.
Konoka was at a loss of words upon the end of her friend's speech and felt a blush growing across her own visage. 'Does she think we're destined to be together?' Konoka thought unconsciously playing with a tuft of hair hanging over her shoulder. Setsuna coughed, trying to break the uncomfortable air of silence, it didn't seem to work. Then a knock rang through the room saving the samurai woman.
"Please, excuse me." Setsuna said, standing to answer the door. "Ah, Shizuna-sensei, and Asuna-san too, please, come in." Setsuna said allowing the school nurse, and their redheaded friend, to step into her dwelling. "Asuna, how are you!" Konoka said wrapping a blanket around her shoulders to shield herself from the cool air coming from the hallway. "I'm glad you're alright! You worried me for a bit there." Asuna said in an admonishing tone, Konoka just smiled.
"Well Asuna-kun, I must check up on my patient so, if you'll excuse me for a minute." Shizuna said walking towards Konoka. "Oh, excuse me for a moment…" Setsuna said all of a sudden. Konoka sent a confused look her way. "I just remembered, I had a prior engagement I had to attend to today, and I must cancel it. I'll only be gone for a minute. Asuna-san feel free to stay here in my absence." Setsuna said, bowing out of the room; Shizuna continued on with her examination.
Later, Setsuna returned to find Konoka and Asuna having what seemed like a normal conversation about men, and drinking tea that was probably made by Konoka. "Oh, Secchan, welcome home!" Konoka said with a warm smile. "Would you like some tea?" Asuna added. "No, thank you. Sorry I took so long." Setsuna said with a soft smile; one that Asuna would see only when she was around Konoka.
"No, it's alright. Asuna and I had a great conversation. It was kind of strange not having a TV to watch, though." The brown haired beauty said. "Sorry about that, I don't often watch TV, unless I'm at your room." Setsuna said placing her Yûnagi down by her bed. "Well, I think I'm going to leave now…" Asuna said, placing her cup into the kitchenette.
"Oh, here, I'll go with you." Konoka said standing up. "Ah, ah, ah! I don't think so. You should stay here Konoka. I hardly have enough time to watch after that brat Negi, much less making sure you're okay at all hours of the night. You heard Shizuna-san, she said you shouldn't be outta bed for a while. And you have more time to make sure she's not going to keel over, don't you? After all it's your 'Job'." Asuna said carefully pushing Konoka back to the couch.
"Asuna!" "Asuna-san" Konoka and Setsuna said at the same time and Setsuna walked over to the two girls. "Ah, Setsuna-san, watch out!" Asuna shouted only a little too late. Setsuna tripped over the discarded blanket on the floor and fell right towards Konoka with a growing blush, as her mastery of reflexes seemed to diminish as her blush grew.
The whole ordeal ended with Setsuna on top of Konoka; their faces, mere centimeters away from each other. Setsuna lost all perception of thought, and slowly drifted closer to Konoka's lips. Then that nagging feeling of regret kicked her in the head and she quickly jumped from the floor, and Konoka quickly buried her face under the cover on the floor.
"I'm so sorry, Ojousama!!!" Setsuna shouted her entire body had changed to a dark crimson shade. Konoka shook her head and a muffled 'Kono-chan' echoed from under the blanket on the floor. Setsuna thought that Konoka was disgusted in her behavior when really all Konoka wanted to do was to hide her own dark, crimson blush from the world.
Konoka stood up with her back to Setsuna and wrapped the blanket around her. "Excuse me for a bit." She said hastily walking out of the door, and to her own room. Asuna quickly followed her after giving an apologetic bow to Setsuna.
Disclaimer: Another idea R&R please!