Disclaimer: I do not own Negima!
To Dare or not to Dare
A sigh escaped from Konoka's lips as her gaze stared out the open window in her small dorm room. She had previously been cleaning when her attention slipped away from her and left her in this dazed state. The young mage had been working hard to tidy up but the idea of being able to see a certain samurai that night left the girl in a sleepy trance letting her daydream while she stood beside her bed. Konoka and Asuna had decided to have a small party that night with only a chosen few so that there would be not much of a mess to clean up before the weekend. Even if there were going to be other people, Konoka knew she would still be able to stay close to her protector that night, which she looked forward to immensely. After a few minutes of slacking off, the healer was relieved of this condition when she heard the door creak open and then proceed to close quietly. She slowly turned her head towards the noise which revealed a young orange-haired girl who smiled sheepishly. Even if Konoka had been annoyed to have been torn from her thoughts, she couldn't stay irritated when she remembered what she was supposed to be doing.
"Did I take too long?"
Asuna asked with a wry smile on her face. She noticed the annoyance in Konoka's expression but brushed it off quickly so that she could get to work. She walked over to the small kitchenette in the back of the room and dropped the two heavy loads on the counter. She slowly pulled each thing out of the bags, one by one. The first thing that her long, slender fingers wrapped themselves around was a package of about twenty plastic cups. Once removed from the bag, she turned her head slightly to the side so that she could see her roommate in the corner of her eye. With a shrug, she asked the simple question of where they were supposed to be placed, which led Konoka to lift her hands up in the air. Asuna chucked the bag over her head leaving Konoka to catch them once they came near her.
"Thank you, Asuna!"
Konoka mumbled with a carefree smile on her face. She held the package in her hand for a moment while looking around the room to see what else needed to be done. Finding only a few misplaced items, the young mage lightly tossed the cups onto her desk where a bowl and a bunch of paper plates took refuge. She then continued to pick up the last remaining objects on the ground as Asuna placed a few bottles of soda into the fridge.
"There, we're done!"
Konoka muttered into the side of her sleeve as stretched her arms out casually. She had started to clean the room as soon as she returned home from the last class of the day. It normally didn't take this long for her to finish but Asuna had found the mage losing her concentration more than once.
"And not a minute too soon! Everyone should be arriving in a bit."
Asuna responded as she walked over to the small table in the middle of the room and began to push it to the corner. Even if there was only supposed to be about ten people coming, they still needed all the free space they could get. Konoka, who was still slightly dazed at the moment, only watched Asuna get to work as she made her way to her bed and sat down. She began to roll up the sleeves of her button up shirt and with a sigh she slowly placed her face on her pillow. Upon hearing the loud sigh that escaped from Konoka's lips, Asuna placed her hands on her hips and looked down at Konoka's sleepy face.
"Konoka! The party hasn't even started yet and you're already tired? What's Setsuna going to say when she comes by later and finds you already asleep?"
Konoka felt a light blush spread across her cheeks from the words that were being uttered from her friend's mouth. Setsuna had told them she would be late for the party due to a previous engagement that night. She knew that she wouldn't be that late but she warned the two hostesses' so that they wouldn't wait for her for too long. Konoka forced herself to sit up quickly to satisfy her taunting roommate.
"Asunnnnnaaaaaaa!"
She finally muttered in response with a childlike pout on her face. Asuna knew all too well the troubles that the shy samurai had been giving her roommate, but that never stopped the orange-haired girl from just a tiny bit of teasing every once in a while. Konoka let one more sigh escape from her throat as her eyes slowly fluttered to the outside world once more. Setsuna was stubborn, and because of that, it was making things hard for Konoka to make any kind of move for them to become a couple. Not that the swordswoman attitude was necessarily bad in the healer's opinion. She found it unbelievably cute when her protector began to stutter and blush uncontrollably. What she loved even more about it was that it was only her who was able to make Setsuna lose her calm every single time they touched. A sly smile began to play across Konoka's lips when she was finally brought back to reality by a small knock on the door. Asuna, who was already standing, was the first one to react.
"Coming!"
She called out as she strode over to the door and lightly placed her hand on the doorknob. She twisted it lightly to test if she had locked it when she came in and once she heard a click, she pulled it. As it opened, a taller girl was revealed with what looked like an extra bag of food in her left hand.
"Kaede-san! Come on in, you're the first one here."
Asuna exclaimed with a grin on her face. Kaede handed the bag to Asuna who gratefully took it and closed the door behind her guest.
"Good evening Asuna-dono, Konoka-dono."
Kaede stated with a slightly dazed expression plastered across her face. She looked slightly tired but at the same time, Konoka could not tell what the ninja was thinking. Kaede was about to open her mouth to speak when a second knock on the door caught her attention. Asuna, who had not yet left the door's side, turned quickly and opened it.
"Hey! You were able to make it! Come in."
Tastumiya Mana stood there with a sly smile creeping across her lips. She had previously told the two hostesses' earlier that day that she would not be able to make it.
"My appointment ended up finishing earlier than expected…"
She murmured as she walked through the door proudly. She then nodded a 'hello' to Konoka but soon found her gaze landing on a certain ninja who sat relaxed on the floor beside her. The taller girl who sat comfortably on the floor looked up to meet her stare with only one eye open.
"It finished early, you said? You sure you're not here since I am?"
Kaede whispered to her friend with a crafty smile on her lips. Her voice was low so that only the gunner could hear the words that slipped out of her mouth. Mana, upon hearing these words, sat down beside the tall girl and taped her index finger on a small pistol that took refuge in a holster that was attached to her hips.
"Watch your words ninja."
She stated while removing the small coat she had been wearing, and then tossed it onto the nearby chair. Kaede's smile disappeared from her face, which led Mana to believe that her threat worked perfectly. She sat up straight and proud to have been the one to remove the goofy smile from the Kaede's lips, but was soon proved completely wrong.
"Who's a ninja, de gozaru?"
Kaede asked looking around the room innocently. It was always the same, no matter how many times her class pointed it out to her that it was obvious that she was a ninja, Kaede always played the easy way out of it. She found it more amusing when she taunted her friends like that but it was even better when Mana was on the receiving end. Kaede smirked with head slightly tilted to the side as she stared at the person beside her. The gunner was about to respond cunningly but Asuna cut her off suddenly.
"Hey, Kaede? There's a dagger of some sort in this bag…"
The orange-haired girl mumbled while removing the particular sharp object from the bag. Kaede slowly got up and walked towards the confused girl. The ninja examined the blade as she took it from Asuna's grasp, and once she confirmed that it was hers, she slipped it in a secret pocket in her black vest. She patted the pocket twice before she returned to her place beside Mana. Asuna, who was still slightly confused by the fact that either of them would have a weapon at the party, didn't notice the knocking at the door. At first there was only one knock, then two, and after a few seconds of patience the door started to vibrate due to the racket outside. Words like 'monkey' and 'deaf' began to echo in the small room, which led Asuna to open the door. As it swung open, the three causing the sound quieted down.
"Stupid."
Was the only word that was muttered from Asuna's mouth when she caught sight of the blonde who was at the moment trying to be calmed by the two who accompanied her. Natsumi's and Chizuru's eyes flashed towards the hostess to silence her, but it was too late for that now. The class president shot at her like a bullet causing Asuna to topple over and begin to brawl with her friend.
"Dummy! You're the one who wouldn't answer the door when I knocked!"
Ayaka yelled while the two tumbled around the floor trying to gain the advantage over the opponent. The only response that Asuna gave to the blonde was a simple smirk that urged the fight on. Ignoring the squabbling two, Konoka walked over to the new guests to welcome them but before she could speak, the remaining two, other then Setsuna, arrived. Haruna and Kazumi stood behind the others and shut the door behind them as they stepped in.
"Kazumi! Paru!"
Asuna called out as she threw Ayaka to the side and stood up. Paru, which was Haruna's well known nickname in the class, smiled with a wink as she made her way to the circle that the rest of the girls had been creating. Kazumi followed her friend slowly as her concentration turned to whatever was in her pocket. She slipped her delicate hands into the pouch of her pants and slipped out a small digital camera. She grinned deviously while her free hand placed itself on her hip.
"Now, what games are worthy of us playing?"
Shivers began to crawl up the backs of many in the room, most of the girl wondered what the journalist was planning on doing with what ever pictures she took after the party. Haruna, who had been waiting for someone to ask, replied immediately.
"Truth or dare! It's the perfect game to play!"
She exclaimed making Konoka wonder what the young artist was planning. Without hearing any protests, Haruna considered it to be an all round agreement, which made her get to work. She pulled out a small paper from the bag she had been carrying around, and then she quickly began to scribble words down. The manga-ka then began to rip the papers in an uneven fashion. When she finally looked up, she sighed and decided to explain to them what she was doing.
"I have it all planned out so that it's fair for everyone. I wrote down everyone's names on this piece of paper, and then ripped them into individual pieces, as you saw me do. Now I'm going to put them into a bowl, after folding them of course, and we're going to each pick one. This way everyone gets to have the choice between truths or dares at least once."
The artist stated simply as she placed them in a plastic cup, which was easier to get than a bowl. She shuffled them around for a few seconds but abruptly stopped when Konoka protested the start of the game.
"Don't forget to put Secchan's name in. She'll be here later."
Even though everyone knew that Setsuna would have rather stayed out of a game like this, she wasn't there to argue so Haruna gladly added her friend in. After waiting a few seconds while shuffling around the names in the cup, Haruna placed the object in the middle of the circle where everyone reached in and grabbed a name. Once all the girls had picked a random piece, only one paper remained in the middle. Whose ever name it was would belong to Setsuna once she arrived. The piece of paper that each person held in their hands were fiddled with for a few moments before Haruna gave them permission to open it. Everyone immediately did as they were told and as each of them looked down at their own paper, a smile played across their lips as they began to think of what they could do to torment their person. As they were thinking, Haruna interrupted them one last time.
"I think everyone should shuffle around a bit, try not to sit beside the person that you are daring. Don't make it obvious though."
She commanded, Haruna figured that this way the dares, or truths, would not be whispered to the person beside them. She had planned this game out perfectly and she was now ready for the game to start.
"Well then, who wants to start?"
Konoka finally spoke after a long silence due to all the girl's intense thinking. It went silent again for a moment before a certain red haired reporter decided to perk up.
"Well, I don't mind starting."
Kazumi stated and after hearing no other volunteers, she unfolded her scrap piece of paper excruciatingly slow to provoke her classmates. Finally, she gently tossed the piece into the middle of the circle, making all the girls lean into the middle and read the name out loud.
/
Okay, so I wanted to make this into an Oneshot but the story is going to end up being long so I decided to make it into chapters. So far there isn't any fluff but that's coming up in the next chapter so read on, and the Konosetsu fluff (Which is the main pairing in the story) is going to be in chapter 3. I'm excited to write that so it shouldn't take me too long to update. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it, please review and if you want you can leave me requests of pairings that you want to read about. Thanks! 3