I Love You

Note: Here's another one-shot for you guys. I know I've been busy lately, but this story's been on my mind so I wanted to give it to you as soon as possible. I hope you're all enjoying whatever you're doing and I hope you enjoy this little story.

The fleet made their way into the bay and unpacked after a long fought war. Many of the girls had to immediately go to the infirmary, and one of those girls was Kaga. She took a lot of damage protecting Akagi during their fight. Akagi insisted on escorting her to the infirmary, but Kaga said that she could handle it on her own. Immediately, Akagi felt a little sad. She wanted to help Kaga, but that one thing inside of that girl prevented Akagi from always being by her side.

After a few minutes, Kaga finally made it inside of the infirmary where she found an open and crashed onto it. She took a nice deep breath in and closed her eyes. Once she did, she entered one of her normal trances, but only this time, it was a lot different than what she was used to seeing.

…

The day was a gloomy day. Rain was falling on the base and the First Carrier Fleet were in their room. Unfortunately, a horrible sickness befell upon one of them. Akagi was in bed as weak as could be while Kaga was doing everything she could to try and nurse her back to health. They tried going to the infirmary, but they couldn't explain what it was. The only thing they could conclude was that it wasn't contagious. With that in mind, they told Kaga to take her home and they'll work on finding a vaccine for her.

Now, it was just the two of them. Akagi's body temperature was fluctuating like crazy so keeping her calm was hard for Kaga, but she was doing her best. She had both a hot and a cold towel ready just in case if anything got serious. At that moment, Akagi was extremely hot so Kaga had her undress to her underwear and placed the cold towel on her forehead.

"Akagi-san, how are you feeling?"

"I'm still really hot."

"I know." Kaga examined her body and saw that she was sweating like crazy. "Akagi-san, can you please sit up? I need to scrub you down. That sweat isn't doing any good for you."

"Okay." With the help of Kaga, Akagi was able to sit up. She didn't have a lot of strength so she leaned against her body while Kaga cleaned her up.

"Does that feel any better?" She was too weak to answer so she gave her a simple moan and that was enough to know that she was doing a little bit better. Once she was completely wiped down, she set her back down on the bed and changed her towel. Unfortunately, things took a turn. Right as Kaga put the cold towel against her forehead, Akagi started to shiver like crazy. Her whole body was ice cold so Kaga quickly changed gears. She switched to the hot towel and threw the blankets over her body.

"K-Kaga-san, it's… so cold." One blanket wasn't enough so she ran to the other side of the room and pulled out another blanket to throw over Akagi.

"It's alright Akagi-san. I'm here." For Kaga, it was so hard to put up a strong front since she didn't know anything about this sickness or how to really make her feel better, but from the looks of things, she was doing a pretty good job.

As time went on, Kaga was expecting a change in her body temperature, but there was no such luck. Her body continued to shiver as if she was in the Antarctic. Kaga felt so bad because Akagi never did handle sickness very well, but this one was unlike anything she's ever seen. It left her so vulnerable and with nothing to do about it. Kaga remained by her side. Her hand held onto Akagi's as tight as she could. She couldn't let; she didn't want to let go. Even the slightest separation between them would worry them too much.

"K-Kaga-san," she said softly.

"What is it, Akagi-san?"

"I'm cold."

"I know. We don't have any more though. I could go ask Hiryuu and Souryuu for some more." Kaga stood up and let go of Akagi's hand, but it was no use. Akagi was quick enough to hold onto her and pull her back down onto the chair.

"C-Can you join me?" Kaga was confused. What did she mean by that? Out of nowhere, Akagi did her best to pull up the blankets, inviting Kaga to lie down next to her. She couldn't really reject this offer since she knew that body heat was the best at keeping other people warm. She slowly climbed in next to her wrapped her arm around Akagi.

"Is that better?" Akagi cuddled close to her and put her head in Kaga's chest.

"Mhmm. Much." At that moment, the room got silence and all that could be heard was the sound of their breathing. Kaga's was much calmer than Akagi's, but other than that, there was no other sound. For a while now, the two of them remained in each other's arm until one of them finally broke the silence. "Kaga-san, I love you."

"Huh? Akagi-san, did you say something?"

"No, just… Thank you."

…

Kaga opened her eyes in shock. She brought her hand up to her head and sighed. She totally forgot that she had memory in her head. That was so long ago that it almost seemed like it didn't even happen. She then tried bringing up her other hand, but noticed that something was stopping it from moving. She looked down and saw Akagi lying down next to her. Immediately, her face turned bright red as she started to panic. Her body moved around and caused Akagi to look up.

"Kaga-san, are you okay?"

"Akagi-san, what are you doing here?"

"I was worried about you. I felt bad about making you come here on your own."

"What are you talking about? I chose to come here on my own. I didn't want you to strain yourself over something as small as this." Out of nowhere, Akagi swung her body around and sat upright, straddling Kaga's body below her.

"Please don't ever talk like that. This isn't just something that I can brush off. You sacrificed yourself to make sure that I would be alright. Don't take this lightly." Akagi placed her hands on Kaga's cheek and looked her in the eyes.

"I'm not. Why are you saying this?"

"Because I love you." At that moment, Kaga's eyes shot wide open and had a recollection of her dream from a few minutes ago. She said that back then as well, but she didn't realize it at the time.

"You… love me?" At that moment, Akagi leaned over and kissed her on the lips. Akagi was so gentle and so soft that Kaga couldn't believe this was happening. A few seconds later, Akagi broke away from the kiss and still kept her eyes on Kaga.

"Don't you love me?"

"What?! I… I… uh…" Akagi placed her finger against Kaga's lips and smiled.

"Actually, you don't need to answer. I already know what you're going to say." Akagi climbed off the bed and started to walk towards the door. Kaga suddenly sat up and called out to her.

"Akagi-san!" She stopped and turned around with a smile on her face.

"Yes?" When she saw that smile, Kaga froze. She couldn't think of what to say. She was completely lost in thought.

"I… Thank you for coming here."

"Of course. Feel better." She turned around and walked out. As she did, Kaga wanted to say more, but for some reason, those words just wouldn't come out. Once she left, she was left alone for a bit until one of the nurses came over to check on her. It wasn't anything special, but Kaga knew that she had to see Akagi again. She wanted this little visit to be over already so she could rush over to her side. There was a slight bruise on her left arm so the nurse wrapped it up.

"You know, you're a lucky girl." Kaga was surprised since she thought that the nurses were anti-social.

"Really? How does that work? I'm stuck in the infirmary."

"Haha, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about that girl. I can tell that she really loves you." At that moment, Kaga felt saddened. It seemed like everyone knew about it except for her. That nurse continued to talk about Akagi and that made Kaga's heart race. Akagi was such a great person that she managed to touch so many people in the fleet. Why couldn't she have realized this before those words were said? After everything was checked out and she was free to go, Kaga stormed out of the building and quickly went to look for Akagi.

She didn't really know where to go first so she decided to head to the café. Unfortunately, she wasn't there, but some of the girls said that she was there beforehand. After that, she headed to the docks, but she wasn't there either. She was quickly running out of places to check for. The only other place she could be was in their room. At that moment, Kaga zoomed through the base until she reached their room. She stormed through the door and looked around urgently.

"Akagi-san. Akagi-san, are you in…" She was suddenly turned around and kissed by someone. It didn't take long for Kaga to realize it was Akagi. She quickly pushed her away and tried to concentrate. "Akagi-san, I need to tell you something."

"I know. It's okay. Like I said before, I know what you were going to say."

"No, it's not. I mean… I do love you."

"And that's all you need to say." Akagi moved in closer to try and hug her, but Kaga insisted that she had more to say to her.

"Akagi-san, please." Akagi stood up and listened to her. "I love you. I don't know why, but I only thought of it just now. For you, you've always cared about me and you've always told me that you love me. I feel really bad because never once have I told you that I love you." Akagi touched her cheek.

"Kaga-san, it's okay. I know how you feel. You don't need to stress yourself."

"No, I do." She grabbed Akagi's hand. "You deserved to be loved more than anyone in this world. You're so beautiful and so caring… I… I don't deserve to be yours." Kaga dropped her head. She finally managed to speak her mind. It wasn't exactly what she wanted, but she did do it.

"Kaga-san." Akagi put her hand under her chin and lifted it back. "You're wrong. I don't deserve you." She kissed her on the lips again and when she finished, she saw that a tear fell from Kaga's eye.

"How could you say that?"

"Why wouldn't I say that? You're always there for me, even if you don't realize it. Don't you remember that day when I got really sick?" Kaga's face turned red. "You're just a good person. You may not know it, but you can't stand to see someone suffering or being alone. And I'm lucky to be with you."

"Akagi-san?"

"I'm not asking for you to tell me that you love."

"Your actions are more than enough for me." Akagi put her hands on Kaga's and smiled.

"Akagi-san. I love you."

"I love you too."

The End