"Define Love" Series
Period One: Longing and Surprise
Disclaimer: I don't own any of Negima and its characters or locations in this story. Ken Akamatsu is pretty damn lucky.
Why did alarms have to blare so loudly in your ears that way? A fitting first thought to have waking up in the early morning. It was true, for a blonde just opening her eyes to the noise of her alarm and the morning light pouring into her dorm room from the window. That alarm was entirely too loud for her sensitive beastgirl ears, which were long and pointed out from the sides of her head and slightly furred. Eventually, she reached out and shut the darn thing off, and managed to pull herself out of her bed. Standing, she stretched and let out a small yawn, tiny tears coming out of the corner of her eyes. Her yellow tail behind her wagged a bit as she woke up her body from its night's recovery. One could see she had the common trait in Mundus Magicus of tanned skin, and her body structure was her proof that her daily training kept her well in shape and very fit. Grabbing her uniform from where it hung on her closet door, she proceeded to change her clothes. There was a light knock on her door, followed by a familiar light voice she knew immediately. "Ojou-sama?"
Emily turned her head a bit and called out. "Come on in Beatrix." The door opened, and then shut as a human girl with navy hair and calm expression entered the room with a small bow. Emily finished buttoning her long sleeved uniform and picked up her hair brush. She half-frowned, looking at Beatrix through the mirror in front of her. "Really, how early do you wake up?"
"As early as necessary."
Right…Emily decided maybe she should just not ask anymore about that. The girl really did wake up impossibly early, while still being alert through the day. Who did that? She instead busied herself with tying her hair into the double ponytails she was so recognizable with now. Her mind was somewhere else entirely anyway. She had had a dream. It was a normal dream, of hosting another one of her squad's training days. They were drilling, until Beatrix and Collet had to leave early, leaving Emily to help the shortest, purple haired cadet with her training alone. Nothing strange there. But what was weird, what weighed heavy on her mind, was how often she had been having these simple yet confusing dreams. Yue was always somewhere near her in all of them. It was frustrating. Not only did she have to put up with the annoying cadet and rival, but she had to see her at night in her dreams now? Just ridiculous, and annoying. They were perfectly normal dreams, but for some reason she kept waking up feeling the same sense of confusion.
"Ojou-sama?"
The voice of Beatrix had snapped her out of it. She realized she was just staring at her mirror, kind of gazing at nothing. Nervously, she cleared her throat. Beatrix just seemed worried. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Just, make some tea or something if you want." Emily waved it off. Beatrix just nodded obediently. Emily sighed and rubbed the side of her face, eyes closed. Why…did she feel embarrassed about that just now?
Routine, routine. Emily was getting far too used to the same thing every day. Daily school life, unless that once in a while interesting thing popped up, whether it was something with the students or just something in class or academic. Class's lecture was about the founding of Ariadne itself, the great independent city-state they lived in, and their involvement in the war and how they became to be the neutral military that they were. It was a little dull and dreary. But she still listened. Everyone did, except of course, much to Emily's irritation, the dog beastgirl sitting in the back of the classroom next to Yue, who was sleeping soundly. After class Emily had made sure to give Collet Farandole a stern scolding about what she had done. And of course, after that class they had to leave for their outdoor class that day. In the locker rooms, they changed into their outdoor uniforms. Emily overheard Collet's voice nearby.
"Yue…you took notes of the lecture today, right?"
Emily scoffed after she pulled her white hoodie over her head that read Sevensheep across the front of it. "You wouldn't be asking that if you had kept your eyes open today."
The other tanned blonde turned where she stood to look at Emily with distraught green eyes. "Aww, c'mon, Class Rep! I said I was sorry! Like, a hundred times already."
Emily put her hand on her hips and her tail flipped upwards. "How is saying sorry supposed to make up for the time that teacher wasted trying to teach you about our very own history? Maybe if you went to bed earlier instead of goofing off, or maybe even using that time to study something, you would have better grades."
Collet's longer dog ears jumped up into the air when Emily said that. "Hey! Are you trying to start something?" She growled at Emily, who glared back. Beatrix and Yue stood next to each other, exchanging glances for a moment. Surely if neither of them stepped in at some point then some sort of fight really would break out again, as usual.
Yue was the one to take the shot. "Collet…she's just saying that you should try harder to be on our level. But, Iincho, give her a break. The only reason why she didn't get a lot of sleep last night was actually because I was helping her study." Both girls looked at Yue, and Collet nodded.
"Yeah, that's right!"
Emily frowned. Damn that girl! Always! Emily found herself always in the middle of the petty arguments she hated wasting time on, while Yue had to step in with her compromises. Emily was squad leader and class representative. What kind of image was she setting? "Fine! Whatever, can we just go before class starts?"
Emily watched them leave before her, staring after Yue. She despised how the girl could so easily take over Emily's supposed roles like that. They all headed outside and joined the other students already on the field as the teacher announced their assignment. A marathon around the field perimeter for the class period. Not too difficult, just tedious after a period of time. All the students took flight on broomsticks, soon after going at the pace they all felt comfortable with. Emily and Beatrix led at the front, Yue behind them, with Collet…somewhere behind them.
"Uh…Iincho, are we going to have drills today?" Emily could hear Yue's shouts over the flying. It was indeed her job as squad leader to assign the days they practiced their drills as a team and their techniques.
"Likely. Just make sure you get here."
"Collet's worried that you're going to give her extra because you're so mad at her."
"And so what if I do?"
"Aren't you being a little unreasonable?"
Emily turned her head to the left, annoyed now. "I don't think so. Must you keep defending her?"
"Yeah, because you're too harsh on her." Too Harsh! What? Emily scowled.
"Just what are you-" Bea's voice sharply cut into her sentence. "Ojou-sama! Watch it!" Emily blinked and turned her head just in time to see the front of her broom jam into an outstretched branch. She had been veering off course for not paying attention. Emily gasped as the momentum threw her forward and off her broom headfirst. She was sent flying. She heard Beatrix yell out again, but she was too focused on the fact that she was plummeting right for the ground far below.
Crap! She closed her eyes and braced herself for a mighty painful impact with the ground. Instead…she felt her descent slow, and then the warmth of another body. Confused, she opened her eyes and looked up. Yue had used magic to save her and catch her in her arms. "Iincho, are you okay?"
No…no, she wasn't. Not at all. She forgot how to speak, her face was heating up, and her pulse was speeding up. She couldn't stop staring at Yue's violet eyes, which wasn't helping at all. "Class Rep?" Emily blinked. She shook her head and snapped out of it, looking away from Yue's face. Any longer and her blush would have become obvious anyway. What had just happened there? "P-put me down, I'm fine." Yue nodded as they lowered to the ground slowly. Yue let lowered Emily, letting the girl stand. Beatrix landed nearby, along with Collet.
"You're sure out of it today." Collet said as Beatrix handed Emily her broom. Emily frowned. "Nobody asked for your input, Farandole." Her neck hurt a little bit. Likely from the way she was just mercilessly whipped off her broom like that. She rubbed the back of her neck as Yue and Beatrix both looked at her. She blushed a bit. "What?" Beatrix frowned. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Emily waved it off and mounted her broom. "I'm fine. Now quit using me as an excuse to skip on class." She said before taking off.
Really, the neck injury wasn't a big deal. She thought it wasn't, anyway. After classes, Emily was ready to go meet back up with Yue and Collet at the now empty field. Beatrix stood next to her by her dorm door, looking at her with concern as Emily rubbed her neck. "Ojou-sama…your neck is sore. Perhaps it would best that you cancel today's training."
"No, no…I'm fine. Let's just go."
She needed the distraction from all the crap so far. It was all right she guessed. Collet fell behind as usual, Yue tried to help her, she eventually got back into the swing of things, Emily just thought it was all very irritating and wondering why she had been stuck with these two in the first place. Beatrix just did as she was told, also as expected. "Ow!" Collet had mishandled an incoming strike from Emily and earned herself clean hit to the knee by the blunt side of Emily's student sword. Emily frowned. "You've got to pay more attention than that." She sighed. "How is it feeling?"
Collet winced and her sword disappeared. "That…really hurt." She was moving her weight off of her knee. Emily noticed that much. She nodded and gestured for Beatrix to come over. "Help Farandole get back to her dorm…I guess we're done here for today. The sun is going to go down soon anyway." Beatrix nodded and helped the limping beastgirl get her things and leave.
Yue sighed and stood next to Emily. "You were forgiving today."
Emily frowned. "I just felt like turning in early, that's all."
Yue titled her head, looking at Emily as the girl once again lifted her hand to her neck and rubbed it. She lifted her hand, initially to move Emily's hand. Emily blushed faintly and reacted by moving away. "W-what are you doing?"
"You look like you're still hurt. I was just checking. Come on, Iincho, let me see." Yue reached again. Emily panicked as Yue gently grabbed her hand to move it, and threw her hand into the air. Unfortunately, the smaller girl had an oddly good grip, and Emily only ended up pulling her closer. She yelped as Yue crashed into her, pushing them onto the ground. Emily grunted as her neck hurt a lot more from the fall, but mostly noticed the smaller figure falling on top of her. Yue's head was on her collarbone and they were both pretty much in a tangle with each other. Yue groaned, moving a bit. "Ugh…" Emily turned ten different shades of red. With a rush of panicked energy she heaved Yue off of her, causing the girl to hit the ground next to her. Emily winced despite the discomfort at the added pain of moving her neck. "Ah!" She didn't curse out loud, but surely in the back of her mind she had a colorful word for what she felt.
Yue sighed and picked herself back up. "Ow…well that was just pleasant." She said with sarcasm. She looked at Emily, and concern was back on her face. "All right. No more arguing Iincho. Come on, I'll help you to the dorms and try to help you out." Still blushing, Emily let Yue help her stand and followed the girl off the field.
"Okay, okay. Sit down." Emily had let Yue into the dorm, since the girl seemed so willing to help her out. "If you don't do something about it, it's just going to hurt more tomorrow." Was her argument. A damn valid one too, so Emily accepted. Emily sat down on the edge of her bed and watched Yue grab a folded towel and boil some water to place the towel in for a while. She walked over to Emily and climbed into the bed, moving behind Emily. Emily looked at the floor and blushed as Yue placed her hands on her neck and shoulders. She kneaded, massaging Emily's sore muscles. Emily's tail waved around on the surface of the bed while she sat there, a bit nerved, yet feeling better as Yue worked on her muscles carefully. She winced, blushing more. Oh great…why was this happening? Her nerves were firing up, and if she hadn't had her hands tightly holding the edge of her mattress, she was pretty sure that her arms would have been shaking. But the things that she felt and her twisting stomach terrified her more than anything else ever had before. She's your rival! Below you! Those kinds of thoughts are simply uncalled for! She realized this was probably the farthest thing from relaxing that could possibly happen. After a bit of time, Yue stopped and wrung out the now somewhat hot towel, and placed it around Emily's neck and over her shoulders. The sudden small shock made her jump, but afterwards she felt a bit relieved, not only from her neck pain, but also because Yue was no longer freely touching her. "Keep the towel there for a while, okay? Just rest up and don't move your head too much, I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow." Emily tried to be subtle in calming her flaring face with her deep breaths as she nodded.
Yue smiled a bit. "Okay. I'll leave you alone since you're just going to kick me out if I stay along enough anyway. I'll see you tomorrow Iincho."
"F-fine…good night, Ayase." Emily said as Yue left. Emily folded her arms over her stomach and frowned. Sighing, she slowly laid down, careful not to hurt herself again or let the towel fall off her neck. She laid on her side, staring at the wall as she pondered it all. What was going on? Why was she still asking that question? She knew what it was. But she just…she couldn't accept such a thing, never. Damn it all. Why did she feel such an unwanted longing for that big-forehead, ridiculous human girl? She scowled. There was nothing likeable about how she was able to one-up Emily if she wanted to, or her constant need to challenge her decisions. What could Emily find attractive about her passion in pursuing what she wanted and her persistence in protecting people close to her? Emily closed her eyes and grimaced. No, she was making it worse now.
So the morning repeated itself like before. But…there was something else. Emily was so out of it. She couldn't get it out of her head all night. Ugh, what was wrong with her? She drifted through her routine of getting ready for class. By the time she stepped out of her dorm, Beatrix was waiting for her. "Ojou-sama. Are you feeling better?"
Of course, Yue told Beatrix what was wrong with Emily. Emily nodded. "Yes…let's just go." Beatrix blinked. Did Emily sound…somber? She seemed distracted.
With plenty of time before class, they took their time getting there. Walking the classroom hallways, students were wandering all around. "Iincho!" Emily's tail twitched as she turned her head. Yue and Collet were heading over to them. Emily felt…she felt happier seeing Yue approaching. Lighter. She couldn't begin to understand any of this, but she really, kind of liked it.
Yue stopped short of them and nodded to Emily. "So, no pain this morning?" Emily shook her head.
"No…thank you. Um, it really did help out." She said quietly. Yue smiled. She seemed so proud that she had been able to do something to help Emily out. Even more so that Emily felt need to thank her for it. Emily blushed faintly, frowning a little bit.
"Glad to help, Class Rep."
"Right…you dullard, you don't have to call me that all the time." Emily said, crossing her arms. Yue blinked, and Collet and Beatrix both looked confused. That had never been an issue before. Yue seemed to take a moment before stammering her reply. "W-what…huh?"
"I said, stop calling me that." Emily said it firmly. Well, firmly enough to make some of the students stop and look. Emily resisted the urge to run off under the eyes of so many witnesses. "Just…call me by my name, idiot." She said, annoyed. Yue opened her mouth, seemingly unable to say anything right away in her surprise. Emily lowered her arms, eyes narrowed through her blush of embarrassment. Her hands were shaking, and her tail wasn't moving at all. How was this so hard? All of the exams, all of the drills, all of the griffin dragons in the world…none of it was more difficult than what she was trying to force herself to do.
"Yue…Y-Yue, have lunch with me. A date." She said, looking at the ground. Just what was she doing? Staring at the ground like some weakened girl who couldn't look someone in the eye? The students began to murmur amongst themselves. Had the class rep, the heiress of the Sevensheep family, just asked the human girl from the Old World on a date? Beatrix was still shocked, not having been certain at all about what was bothering Emily until now.
"Iin-" Yue was cut off when she was about to call Emily Iincho again. Emily had grabbed her shoulders and swiftly leaned forward, pressing her lips to Yue's. Now there was a unified gasp from all of the students around, including Collet and Beatrix.
Yue was so annoying. She was equal to Emily in skill, and that made Emily mad. Emily couldn't stand how Yue seemed to know everything, in intelligence and common sense. She was absolutely frustrated when she had to help the girl understand a training maneuver she didn't understand, and she hated it when Yue had to defend the people Emily freely pushed around before. Yue was forcing Emily to change, without even trying to. Emily stopped and looked at Yue with her softened amber eyes. Yue just looked lost, confused, and…she was blushing.
"E-Emily…" She uttered, even surprising herself. Emily smirked.
Yue's friendly personality irritated her, her cute voice was a pain to her. She hated that Yue looked so amazing when she was blushing like that, or how wonderful her name sounded when Yue said it. Emily pulled Yue by her arm into an embrace, placing her hand on the back of Yue's head and stroking her hair once.
She hated how much she wanted to be with Yue.
Awesome! Okay, so this was just an idea I got from a random writing I did one night when I was bored.
The idea of the setting is after the end of the manga, assuming that Yue went back to Ariadne and became a real student there to study magic.
I do write about yuri and shoujo-ai a lot, don't I? Haha, I don't care, it's what I do.
Please, read and review, give constructive criticism, tell me what you think, just let me know you saw me ;3 But don't flame me or insult me.