"Argh, no!"

Karin watched in annoyance as her car went careening off the same corner as it had during her last attempt.

"Stupid racing games…"

Karin was never much of a game player what with physical training eating up most of her time, and on the occasions she did play she only bothered with survival and action games. These racing and fighting games that Fuu owned just annoyed her. The fighting games weren't even remotely realistic, and she'd bet all of her money that the racing ones weren't either. Of course, the fact that she was terrible at them was what really bothered her, but she wasn't about to admit that.

"Tch…"

She decided to check up on Itsuki, who was doing her homework in her bedroom. Fuu was out for a few more hours so they had the house to themselves for a while, but Itsuki was a responsible girl and had decided to do her homework before anything else

"Itsuki? Are you done yet?" She knocked on the door and called out, but received no reply.

'Maybe she has her headphones in.'

She pushed the door open and took a look. Itsuki was at her desk, but instead of working she'd fallen asleep with her head at an awkward looking angle.

'Wow, that looks really uncomfortable.'

Karin hesitated. She felt like she should move her, but she didn't want to wake her up if she was that tired. At this rate though the poor girl would wake up with a horrible neck ache…

'It can't be helped.'

She made up her mind and decided to put her girlfriend to bed. It wouldn't do to leave her in that kind of position after all. She'd just have to move her carefully and hope that she didn't wake up.

Putting her muscles to work, she carefully pulled the blonde upright in the chair, wheeled said chair back a little, and slowly lifted her up.

She walked over to the bed to put her down…and realised that she should have pulled the duvet back before she'd picked her up. After a few seconds of uncertainty, she put the girl down on the bed and fetched a blanket to put over her.

'There. At least she won't catch a cold now.'

Satisfied, she turned to leave, but the still sleeping Itsuki reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Mnh…no more rice…"

"Heh…cute."

She tried to pry the blonde's fingers off gently, but Itsuki had a surprisingly strong grip in her sleep. At this rate all of Karin's efforts to not wake her would be a waste of time.

'Oh well, I guess it can't be helped.'

Karin relented and lay down on the bed next to her. Of course, this was out of necessity, not because she really wanted to or anything. It couldn't be helped. And the fact that she wrapped her arm around the smaller girl's body was because it was her fault that Itsuki wasn't under her duvet and she had to stop her from getting a cold. It certainly wasn't because she wanted to cuddle or anything. Yes, that was the way it was. Satisfied with those rationalisations, she closed her eyes for a short rest. She couldn't stay here, she had things to do, but a few seconds surely wouldn't hurt.

She woke up the next morning feeling rather embarrassed.