The Obligatory Disclaimer and also boring information type

I don't own Azumanga Daioh. If you needed to be told that on a fanfiction website, you're obviously a few bricks short of a load, but whatever.

I know the title is a bit odd, but it will make sense as we go along. Trust me. Or don't; I'm not very trustworthy. Anyways, this is a fic that explores Tomo and Yomi's past and friendship. Notice I say FRIENDSHIP. Meanwhile, Kaorin continues to chase desperately after Sakaki (with Chihiro's help and Kimura's hindrance), Osaka tries to uncover the meaning of life, Chiyo can't figure out why Nyamo seems so bummed and Yukari's losing her mind, and Kagura just sort of floats around and does various things to affect all the various plots in various ways. Is that all the characters? It better be.

So yeah, probably not a good idea to include all those different storylines in one story, but I frickin' felt like it, K? K.

Also, just a warning: I know nothing about Japan. Almost nothing at all. I know about as much as Japan as, say, the bottle of shampoo in your bathroom. Or, if you don't use shampoo, you're disgusting.

Anyway enough of the rambling, let's get this train wreck a-rollin'! Ready go!

I

BOREDOM

Tomo was bored.

In fact, everyone was bored.

Well, that wasn't true. Osaka wasn't bored; she had been staring at the floor with great interest for the past seven and one-third minutes and seemed to be fine with it, but she was Osaka, a highly unique person and quite possibly her very own species, and this was considered normal behavior for her.

Everyone else, though, was bored out of their skulls. Even though they were eating on the roof, where a fairly pleasant view was available to them, there seemed to be nothing of interest going on. Yomi ate her lunch in silence, and not a content one, but an uncomfortable, thick one. It was as if the air was actually thick enough that one had to wade through it. Sakaki, as usual, was detached and taciturn, but so was Chiyo-chan, who normally was friendly to the point of being a little irritating to people who didn't much care for that sort of thing. Kaorin was admiring a certain someone like she always was, but in a much less interested manner than usual. Her friend Chihiro wasn't any better; if anything, she was even more disinterested and she was focusing her vision on nothing in particular. Kagura was hit by the boredom fairly hard. Being her energetic self, she gave off an aura of extreme unease and one could tell she wasn't too far away from going mad from sitting still for so long. Even her boredom, though, paled in comparison with Tomo's.

Tomo was antsy and confused, slightly scared, even. What was going on? Why wasn't anything happening? She very badly wanted something to happen, but there really was nothing she could think of to do. It wasn't as though it had all been done today, too. In fact, it had been utterly uneventful thus far. There was just some sort of pallor this day cast over everyone and Tomo couldn't stand it. This wasn't fun, and in Tomo's book, any moment that isn't completely saturated in fun was a waste of precious life-force.

Then she realized she was being silly. Of course there was something that would relieve the boredom... Why hadn't she thought of that before? She chalked it up to the strange gloom this day carried. It carried that gloom despite the fabulous weather, which was quite unfair, really, but it didn't matter now. This was definitely going to make things more interesting for her.

Unfortunately, it was also going to make things more interesting for Yomi.

"Hey, Yomi..." she muttered. The day was too subdued for her to manage her usual shout.

Yomi made a small noise of acknowledgment and turned her head, very slowly, to face Tomo.

"What... uh..." Tomo couldn't think of what to say. This was unusual for her, because she usually didn't even bother thinking. But the thickness of the air forced her to do so. "What was the... No, your... What was your answer to problem... seven?"

"What?" Yomi mumbled.

"You know... in gym... No, wait, I mean... uh... English. English, I think..."

"Well..." Yomi lifted her chopsticks up to meet her mouth at a speed of roughly .02 miles per year. "I think it was... uh..." She said the English word for "house," which was "house."

"Oh..." said Tomo slowly.

"Mhmm."

"That's... funny..."

"Mhmm."

"Because..."

"Because... What?"

It felt to Tomo as if the air was growing thicker, yet at the same time, all the oxygen seemed to be seeping out of it, making breathing difficult and nearly suffocating her; it was difficult to hear Yomi's words over the silence and the tape was being played at half speed...

Quarter speed...

One frame per second...

"Because YOU GOT THE ANSWER WRONG!!!!!!!!"

The tape was being played at full speed again, the air popped, and everyone woke up and turned their heads to see what all the commotion was. Even Osaka snapped to attention.

"What?! What are you talking about?" Yomi barked.

"What does it sound liiiiiiiiiiiike?" Tomo chirped, getting up from the ledge she was perched on and prancing around like the fool she was. "That's the wrong answeeeerr!"

"No it's not!" Yomi protested furiously, her food still suspended halfway between the plate and her mouth.

"Yuh-HUH! That's not what I got at all!"

"One might argue that's proof that I DID get it right."

Tomo laughed. "Oh, Yomi, you're such a joker. It's almost charming, really!"

Yomi boiled.

"Hah! I bet you're gonna punch me now or somethin'!" Tomo grinned that awful grin that never failed to make Yomi feel an intense urge to go for her neck.

Yomi shot her friend a look of such pure rage that all the others instinctively moved away from her slightly. Tomo began to sweat and even shake slightly, but then Yomi's face became utterly expressionless.

"You are not going to bother me today," she said, her voice having taken on a completely colorless tone.

To Tomo, this was somehow even worse than if she had been punched. She tried to say something, but her voice seemed to have extinguished itself. Her heart was beating... well, she couldn't tell exactly, but far too quickly.

After a lot of effort, she finally managed to say:

"Oh."

She sat down where she was standing and stared directly at nothing.

For the rest of the day, nothing anyone said to her got an answer.

-------

The next day, while the class was waiting for Yukari-sensei to show up, Tomo seemed to be back to normal. After greeting Yomi rather loudly, she began a long spiel about some "super-ass crazy-awesome" dream she had the night before, but Yomi wasn't really listening. She was staring at a crack in the wall that seemed to have gotten bigger since yesterday.

"...so then the school blew up and the ultra-zombies were..."

"Uh... Yomi-san..." asked Osaka in her slow, faraway manner.

"Huh?" Yomi gave a tiny jerk of the head and looked at her.

"You're staring at my crack in the wall..." Osaka pointed vaguely at the crack in the wall Yomi had been looking at.

"...Your... crack in the wall?"

"Yes..." Osaka nodded. "The one I always look at..."

"Oh."

"Yomi-san, have you ever wondered..."

Yomi groaned inwardly to herself. Whenever Osaka asked if she had ever wondered, what followed usually was some sort of time-wasting question about god knows what.

"Yomi-san, have you ever wondered," Osaka repeated, "Why you and Tomo-chan are friends?"

This caught Yomi by surprise.

"Oh. Well... There is a reason. A very good one. But... It's a bit complicated... Too complicated to explain right now."

"Ah." Osaka went back to staring at her crack in the wall.

Yomi knew there was a good reason. Of course there was. That's what she told herself, anyway. Really, she didn't know why. She just knew how...


That's the cue for a flashback, in case you didn't realize. The next chapter, with said flashback, should be up anywhere from tomorrow to months from now, but most likely much closer to the "tomorrow" end.