A/N: Hello again and welcome to my second fic. This is sorta an unofficial sequal to my first fic 'Role Reversal', I hope you enjoy this as much as I have writing this!
Anime: Azumanga Daioh
Pairing: Osaka x Chiyo, Slight Tomo x Yomi
Disclamer: I don't own Azumanga Daioh, Kiyohiko Azuma does and if I did own it, then it wouldn't be as good as it is today.
Evening was strolling by as a little girl was walking home; this was her usual practice ever since she attended high school, but sometimes she would have someone to walk home with, and this day was no different. She was about to turn when she heard her friend call her name before being ended abruptly.
"CHIYO CHA-" THUNK!
The girl turned and alarm came over her face, as she saw her friend with both her arms outstretched to the side and her face implanted into a nearby lamppost. Shocked, she ran back and helped her dazed peer remove her face from the offending post.
"Miss Osaka, are you ok?" Chiyo Mihama asked the girl, who now had a red mark across her face from where she slammed into the lamppost.
"Chiyo…" Osaka barely spoke as she was thinking why a swarm of birds was swirling around her head.
Both girls began walking home as little Chiyo looked up to her now seemingly fine friend. She was concerned, as this wasn't the only accident Osaka came across that week. Previously, she had tripped over the pavement, fell onto desks and nearly fell into the pool, saved from the last incident by one of her other friends, Kagura.
The young girl then finally spoke to her friend in a caring voice. "Miss Osaka, I think you need have an eye doctor look at you."
"What makes you say that, Chiyo?" Osaka blankly replied, and if she had focused a bit more, she would have seen a large drop of sweat run from her short peer's head.
When Osaka came through the door of her house, she heard her mother call out to her.
"Ayumu are you home?"
"Yeah Mom!" she called back, only to nearly fall face first into the stairs, annoyed at the thought of what Chiyo had been trying to tell her and, not even remembering what had been happening to her, finally called back to her mother.
"Um, Mom? This weekend can I go see an eye doctor?"
One Week Later
Today was the day Ayumu 'Osaka' Kasuga had been waiting for; she was going to have the bandage across her eyes taken off. Before when she visited the eye doctor, she had found out that her eyesight was failing due to a condition she couldn't remember the name of; thankfully, her doctor knew an associate whom performed complex eye surgery. She had been taken there and had the surgery performed with minimal problems, and had to endure being temporarily blinded by a layer of cloth around her eyes for them to heal faster.
Finally Osaka was allowed to take off the blanket of cloth which caused her to be blind for a week; slowly she unwound the bandage, being careful not to let it suddenly all fall off as she stood there with her eyes closed. She then timidly opened her eyes and was surprised, as she could see clearly, and thinking more closely on the matter, she thought she could see clearer then she had ever seen before.
Osaka then started pointing at random items in her room.
"THAT'S A BOOK! THAT'S MISS YUKARI'S HOMEWORK! THAT'S 8:17AM! THAT'S … wait 8:17? I'M GONNA BE LATE!" she yelped as she quickly got dressed into her uniform, rushed down the stairs, only briefly shouting goodbye to her parents as she flew down the pavement, and not actually falling into it like she had been. She ran as fast as she could to her high school, barely missing a few pedestrians on the way.
She burst through the doors as she panted "Sorry…I…was…late…Miss…Yukari…" She looked up at her teacher, hoping that she wasn't going to be punished like she was usually by her educator, but she was surprised by Yukari waving her finger and blissfully replying, "Your parents told me about your surgery, so you're excused for being late, but that doesn't mean you can still sleep in my class…" A hint of warning flowed through her voice at the last part as Osaka took her seat.
Before Osaka took her seat, however, she looked around her class and suddenly focused on the orange hair girl she was going past, something about her made her feel funny, not in the way she would think she was cute but in another way, not anything bad but something peculiar. She sat down and looked in front of her, seeing Chiyo happily listening to Yukari's lecture, but she still couldn't get the feeling out of her mind. Osaka tried to think of other things and get lost in them, a feat she mastered on a usual basis, but today she couldn't seem the get off the topic, and wanted to find out why she was feeling this but couldn't figure it out.
She was distracted from this, however, as Yukari called out her name and proclaiming, "I have the perfect exercise for your improved vision, Osaka. TRANSLATE THE TEXT ON THE BOARD!"
Osaka looked at the board and for the first time knew what it meant, and she stood up, saying, "It translates to 'Jane was walking her puppy out in the night, but forgot to pack her flashlight and skipped back home with the puppy in her arms.'"
Yukari eyed at her suspiciously as she mumbled what seemed to be 'Correct' as Osaka sat back down.
At lunchtime Osaka walked with her friends to the roof like they usually would, but today felt different, and instead of walking beside Chiyo, Osaka walked behind her, almost a bit scared of looking at her directly, and ate only in places where she couldn't see Chiyo, or only the back of her head. Amazingly it was Tomo Takino, the hyper child of the high school who noticed this first, and she tapped her longest known friend on the shoulder and told her the observations she had seen.
"Well… It is a bit odd seeing Osaka not talking directly to Chiyo, since they're always together, unless…" Koyomi 'Yomi' Mizuhara mused, a grin forming on her mouth at the last part and a confused Tomo asked her why she was grinning, before having a slight tinge of red grace her cheeks as her friend whispered something into her ear.
"You serious?" she asked, surprised that Yomi could piece something together like that.
"I am, but first we will have to talk to her alone, just to see if my assumption is right…" just as she said that, Tomo ran straight over to Osaka and told her something, running back she stated to her friend, "I've invited her to yours tonight after school…"
Tomo was cut off by Yomi, who shouted, "YOU WHAT!?" before trying to chop her head into two, barely missing as she chased Tomo around the roof before having to go down the stairs and back to class. The others just ignored this random act of violence, as they normally did this on a regular basis, while Osaka continued to muse about why she didn't want to face Chiyo.
---
After school Tomo had covered Osaka by telling the group that they both needed to help Yomi with an experiment she was planning, which seemed to gain the group's satisfaction. Following this, Yomi, Tomo and the unknowing Osaka walked into Yomi's house, Tomo commenting that this was a first for her to walk in through the front door of the house, as opposed to the window.
After getting sat down in Yomi's room, she began to ask Osaka some questions.
"Okay, Osaka, today you've been a bit mysterious...I mean to say that you usually hang close with Chiyo, but today I-" Yomi was bluntly cut off by Tomo blurting out, "I DID!", which earned her a pillow to the face.
"Fine, we noticed that you were a bit distant with her, would you mind telling us why?" Yomi finished.
Osaka pondered this, a bit surprised how her actions were noticed by these two, especially Tomo, who normally was oblivious to most things. She sighed as she began explaining what she felt when she first looked at Chiyo; the funny feeling, that wasn't bad, but instead...different.
"Like you were walking on air and your heart was beating faster then it normally would?" Yomi supplied.
"Yeah, and something else, that she looked different, she looked…" Osaka thought about it for a moment before Yomi added the word which made perfect sense in Osaka's mind.
"She looked beautiful?"
"Yeah! Wait… does that mean that…" Osaka caught herself, as she finally pieced together the puzzle that was her feelings, and came up with a conclusion that spread a radiant heat of redness across her face.
"That...?" Yomi stepped in and placed her hand on Osaka's shoulder, telling her she didn't have to continue.
Osaka was finally relaxed, now aware of what she was feeling it, and it felt strange, knowing that for the two years she had been known Chiyo, she had never noticed not how cute she was and how amazing she looked. Osaka had never seen her as a child, but as someone her own age which she could talk to, and apart from the height difference and apparent 4 year age gap, they were mostly similar, something which made her feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.
She was about to thank Yomi and Tomo for helping her find out what these feelings were, but Osaka paused and wondered how they both deduced her feelings so well, and decided to pitch that question to them, something neither of them expected to come from Osaka.
"Wait a minute, does that mean that you two are together?" Yomi flushed red, and Tomo did as well, but not as much, and she firmly grasped Yomi's hand.
"Yeah, it's been since Yukari set me that assignment a month ago…" Osaka suddenly felt a tinge of red come across her cheeks and she promised that she wouldn't tell the others of their secret, as long as they never told the others about what she was going to do.
"Wow, are you serious? I mean, do you think it's going to work?" asked Tomo, because she was slightly shocked and amazed at what Osaka was going to try doing.
"I gotta, otherwise I'm never going to be able to look at her again!" Osaka cried, and she looked at Yomi who had been silent when she was explaining what was going to happen tomorrow. Yomi gave Osaka an uneasy look, but slowly nodded and gave her a shaky thumbs up.
With newfound courage, Osaka walked back home, thanking Yomi and Tomo for helping her come to terms with her feelings. She walked back into her home and explained that she was at her friend's house helping with an experiment, purposely forgetting to tell them the real reason she was there. When it was time for bed, she snuggled into her bed with the warmth of her blanket and the thought of what was going to happen tomorrow.
The next day Osaka tried to avoid Chiyo, and she knew that her little friend was worried about her, trying to work out why one of her best friends was avoiding, and trying to think what she could have done to make Osaka not look at her.
Chiyo sighed at her desk at the end of the day, mulling over what had been happening. She was about to leave when Tomo stopped her. Beaming, Tomo handed Chiyo a note, and ran off after Yomi, calling her name, and Chiyo could hear her panting through the corridor. Chiyo sighed again and opened the note with curiosity, surprised to see that it was a note from Osaka.
To Chiyo
I'm sorry that I have been avoiding you, but tonight I can tell you why. Meet me at the roof, but please don't look me in the eye, I have my reasons and you will find out.
Ayumu
Chiyo perked up as she ran as fast as she could, slowing down on the stairs so she didn't fall, and she got to the top and opened the door. There, she saw her friend looking out into the distance.
"Miss Osaka?" Chiyo asked, and she thought that something had happened to her face, maybe an accident she mused, but Chiyo was brought out of her train of thought by Osaka's reply.
"Hiya Chiyo, I brought you up here to ask you a few things, and the reason I've been avoidin' yeah…"
Chiyo stepped a bit closer, but still kept behind Osaka, she then said timidly, "You can ask me anything."
"Ok, my first question is kinda personal, but I'll ask anyway…" Chiyo could sense that the girl in front of her was nervous, so she let her have time to ask her questions.
"What are your views on…your views on…love…" She finally said, this confused the little girl standing behind her, as she was thinking why Osaka was asking her this; the thought never occurred to her that she could love anyone, but she thought about it, she was presented with an odd realisation.
She never took any liking to boys, even though she was still young. However, now that she thought of it, she was actually closer to the girls in her class then any of the boys; and that she was close to one particular girl, someone whom had her sense of wonderment when she learned a new thing or found something funny. Someone whom she could really connect to and share many pastimes with; someone whom she cared for deeply as a friend and as someone in…no...
Chiyo blinked as a thought ran past her head, could she be…impossible! No way could she be having these feelings for a classmate of the same gender, but as she looked at the back of the person she was asked by, it dawned on Chiyo that Osaka might very well share the same feelings that she had now.
"Miss Osaka, my views…it could be said that…" Chiyo was taking a big risk here, for if she misinterpreted Osaka's question then she could either lose a friend, or gain more then a friend. Chiyo closed her eyes and finished what she was about to say.
"It could be said that my views of love are the same as yours, Miss Osaka!" She kept her eyes closed, thinking what would happen, if she ruined her friendship or…
"Really?" came Osaka's reply, and as Chiyo opened her eyes, Osaka slowly turned to Chiyo who was quite suprised at how Osaka looked; her cheeks were tinted red and were soaked with tears which had erupted from her eyes.
"Then let me tell you something I found out yesterday…" Osaka knelt down in front of Chiyo and looked up into her eyes, where tears were forming as she finished her statement.
"I found out that… I love you, Chiyo Mihama." She paused thinking on what the little girl was going to do next before having her wish completed by Chiyo saying, "I… love you too, Ayumu Kasuga…" Osaka's eyes softened as she hugged her friend, the person she most cared for, the one that she loved.
After wiping each other's tears, Chiyo thought about what she could do with her new girlfriend, and asked, "Would you like to come over to my house?"
Osaka looked up and smiled, looking at Chiyo with warmth and happiness as she replied, "Only if you have some Lemonade!"
A/N: Ok, I hope that you enjoyed this and fic, please R&R so I can see what else I can learn be a better writer!
Also once again I thank my friend for Spelling/Grammar checking this to make it readable atleast.
