Konata leaned across the table and flicked Kagami's nose with her finger. "Hey! Are you listening, my beautiful tsundere?"

Kagami spluttered and glared at Konata. "Hey! What was that for?" Konata just covered her feline grin with her hand, knowing fully well that Kagami hated it when she was the target of that expression. Quickly moving over the other side of the table, Konata's hair floated out behind her as she came to a stop right behind Kagami and whispered into her ear.

"You were spacing out, my tsundere. Whatcha thinkin' about, Kagamiiiin?"

"Don't call me that! And it's nothing that you need to be worried about. If you have enough time to care, you should be studying more and worrying about your future." Kagami jumped at Konata's ability to move quickly and suddenly, before she grabbed Konata to try and move her back into her seat, resulting in her being halfway twisted around in her seat, grabbing at Konata's skirt. "Don't do that! And sit down, it's busy right now."

Konata smirked and noted that Kagami, while protesting, wasn't acting like she did normally. By normally, she knew that she would've been hit at least twice, three times depending on the mood. It was also abnormal for Kagami to fuss that much about her, with her typical responses to Konata's teasing being only a couple of curt, half-attentive sentences. For now, she would keep it to herself. Instead...

"K-Kagami-sama! Please.. Don't pull down my skirt here.. Everybody's watching.." Konata purposely called attention to herself by pleading dramatically in a high voice. A couple of students looked over at her, most of them losing interest after realizing it was just the one blunette who was always playing with the glacially unforgiving twintails that were Kagami Hiiragi. Patricia Martin and Hiyori Tamura walked past and shared a giggle at Konata's theatrics. Patricia gave their table a thumbs up, while Hiyori stared at the pair in effort to come up with an idea for a doujin revolving around the act.

Kagami blushed and yanked Konata back to her seat, flusteredly protesting at her incrimination. "Seriously, you idiot.. It's like you want to embarass me. Someday I'll get you back.. Soon.." A scheming smile crept onto her features as she focused her eyes on Konata, knowing the effect it had. Konata's eyes widened the slightest bit, but hid her surprise by smiling and nodding.

"You will never succeed!" She narrowed her eyes in an attempt to look stern and put her hand to her ear. "All troops, order! Attack is imminent, I want a 50% increase to our defensive measures and an extra two scouting parties at all times! I will continue the offensive, do not let me down! Dismiss!"

Tsukasa and Miyuki watched in amusement as Kagami glared at Konata and tried to scold her as she danced around the table, the pair being used to the antics of Konata Izumi and the older Hiiragi twin. They knew well enough that it was easiest to just spectate or start their own conversation, as it was sort of difficult and awkward to try and join in. When it got to this point, things usually ended up in Konata hugging Kagami, apologizing, then leaving with one last tease. Then, the conversation resumed as normal. However, something was a bit odd today.

"Ugh.. You can be so annoying sometimes, you know that?" Kagami groaned, before standing up. "Alright, it's almost time to go. I'll see you guys after school." Konata sat down again, her ahoge bouncing happily, humming and finishing up the last drops of her juice.

"Bye Kagamin! Don't think about me too much, or you won't be able to focus in class, heheh.." Kagami frowned in annoyance to Konata's words, before she started to walk away. Konata jumped up and followed, seeming to float on a cloud of overwhelming positivity.

Tsukasa giggled. "Those two really are close, huh?" She slowly started to pack her things, and stood up, waiting. Miyuki quickly finished up at the table and put her book away.

"They really are something. It's sort of refreshing, knowing that whatever happens, those two will always be here with their saccharine relationship." She walked next to Tsukasa, smiling at the thought of how Konata and Kagami seemed to get along so well. "..even though their personalities contrast so much..." The yellow ribbon bobbled as Tsukasa nodded, then tilted her head in confusion.

"Saccharine? Relationship? W-wait, Sis and Konata are.. d.. d.. dating?!" Her eyes widened and she blushed at her misinterpretation of Miyuki's words.

"N-no, that's not what I meant! Um.. Saccharine is just a word that means.. sweet, or everlasting. Like, how Konata and Kagami always make up after fighting, and go back to being best friends. They aren't romantically involved!" Miyuki flusteredly explained, gesturing panically with her hands, trying to calm her fellow airhead. Konata for sure would've given moe points for Miyuki.

A look of understanding crossed Tsukasa's face, who then smiled and thanked her pink-haired companion. Miyuki smiled in return, before tilting her head and concentrated on her thoughts. "They aren't romantically involved.. but both of them have been acting a little strange lately. Hmm.."

Lost in thought, she walked smack into a brown-haired boy, and hurriedly apologized then scampered back to Tsukasa, who had stopped and looked around in confusion, wondering where her friend had went.

"I really need to stop doing that.."

/-/

After school, Nanako Kuroi let out a big sigh and waved uninterestedly at the class. They had less homework today, since she had come to school completely burnt out. It wasn't an uncommon occurence, because she would commonly assign a huge amount of work to her class, forgetting that she would have to spend all night grading the papers, losing out on her gaming time. Staying up all night gaming was one thing, but staying up all night working was another.

"Class dismissed... no homework today..." As delighted as they were, the students quickly filed out of the room, knowing not to push their luck with their sensei in the mood that she was in right now. That is, everybody except a certain chibi otaku. Kuroi buried her head in her arms and moaned. "Ughh.. I hate everything..."

Konata watched as her teacher mumbled indecipherably and rummaged through her desks to find that bottle of sake. "Yo, sensei!" Cheerfully, Konata waved, even though she knew that Kuroi wasn't even aware she was here.

"Oi.. Izumi.. why are you still here?" Kuroi muttered something about a drink as she pulled out the bottle.

"Oh, just wanted to tell you. The guild went on a raid for the Tower of Phantasm yesterday, since we had everybody online except for you. Piyo didn't want to wait, because she-" Her teacher didn't respond, but when Konata mentioned the raid, her head snapped up and her eyes glinted as she grabbed Konata and hugged her tightly, almost sobbing.

"T-Tower of Phantasm? The raid that has a month cooldown?!" Konata stood there and looked into her eyes, not at all surprised at the pool of sadness swimming in the lime green irises. Since the newest update, the strongest guilds have been getting their players ready for the newest challenge, the Tower of Phantasm, where the strongest items in the game could be obtained. Most end-game players were looking forward to attempting a raid, but it was the most difficult in the game, requiring 48 players to enter. Kuroi had been looking forward to it since the teaser trailer, but she now had to wait another month to challenge it with the guild. "Just wait 'till I get my hands on the raid manager... I can't believe they left me behind!" Konata smiled and let a sly grin creep onto her face. Kuroi glared at her, thinking she was being laughed at, but the glint in the girl's eyes and the words that came out of her mouth.

"Sorry.. I tried to convince them to wait, but they didn't listen. Everybody was getting ready to go, but I somehow managed to convince them to let me have some extra loot."

At this, Kuroi's eyes lit up. You could get basic equipment and items from towns and monsters, but the rarer loot was found in dungeons and from quests. Raid instances had a huge loot table, with incredibly powerful items dropping from the powerful enemies and bosses. "Really?! Did you get the boots from the mid-boss?" Konata nodded.

"Yep! And I got the morphing weapon too. I'll let you have the boots, since you missed the raid." Kuroi was an avid player of the MMO, maybe even more so than Konata. Even though she constantly pestered Konata about her homework, both of them were really close online, having played together for a long time.

"Ah, Konata, sometimes you're my favorite student.. hmm.. oh, here! Why don't you have a drink with me?" Konata sweatdropped and decided it would be best to make her leave now.

"Uh, as much as I'd like to, no thanks sensei.. I really shouldn't.." She quickly backed up and left the classroom, shouting her goodbye before Kuroi could push the sake into her hands.

"Are you sure? We can drink to your success!" Kuroi smiled and took a swig from the bottle. "Well.. more for me.. cheers!" Konata grabbed her bag and looked around for her friends.

"I'm only her favorite student.. when I give her free stuff. That feels sort of wrong.."

/-/

Konata quickened her pace, looking for the heads of her friends. It wasn't that hard to find them. She dashed towards the blob of pink-hair, slipping past a couple of people. "There's a plus to being short and flat. I'd like to see Miyuki trying to do this.. hehe.." Konata caught up and immediately latched onto her favorite. "Kagamin! Did you miss me?"

Kagami jumped at the sudden contact, shaking her arm trying to remove whatever it was that had grabbed onto her. Seeing that it was Konata, she sighed and resigned to having the girl rub her head against her. "Konata, do you have to do that? You don't need to hug me all the time, okay?" While Kagami certainly wasn't weak, Konata was surprisingly difficult to deattach once she had a good grip on something. The best way to describe her was clingy.

"But Kagami, you know you love it when I hug you like this!" Wrapping her arms around Kagami's waist, she hummed happily as Kagami frowned in annoyance.

"Come on, get- off.. seriously.." Pushing on Konata, the otaku only tightened her grip and giggled.

"Kagamiii!"

"They're certainly a sight to see." Miyuki smiled to the other Hiiragi, once again marveling at the differences between the twins. While Kagami would flusteredly protest and attempt to push Konata away in annoyance, Tsukasa would flusteredly stutter and mumble, not trying to remove Konata, thinking that it would be mean to deny the bluenette's hug.

"Yeah.. sis and Konata are really close.. I can't help feeling embarassed and awkward when Konata does that to me." Tsukasa watched her sister struggling, smiling. Miyuki, once again, thoughtfully tilted her head. "Just an act.. Tsukasa said it, but I don't think she realized the full implication.. Kagami puts on a facade.. does she.."

She was startled out of her thought by Konata suddenly throwing herself into Tsukasa, dramatically sobbing and sniffling as she hugged the younger twin. "Tsukasa.. K-Kagamin doesn't want to hug me.." Kagami had somehow managed to pry the girl off of her and push her away, but Konata suddenly felt empty without someone to hug. She wrapped her arms around Tsukasa instead, knowing how the girl would act. Surprised, Tsukasa didn't know what to do, but she guessed that it would be best to comfort the ball of blue hair clinging onto her.

"A-ah.. It's okay Kona-chan.. You can hug me instead..."

Konata gave one last dramatic sob before straightening up. "Thanks Tsukasa, you're such a good friend!" But hugging Tsukasa.. It didn't give her the same feeling as when she hugged Kagami. Konata barely realized it, somewhere in the subconscious part of her mind, but she didn't think too much on it. Looking over at Kagami, she smirked and hugged Tsukasa again. "Maybe I'll just hug you from now on.. Since Kagamin doesn't like me anymore..."

Kagami muttered under her breath. "Tch.. it's better that you hug me than bother my sister." Surprising herself, she realized that the words had slipped out of her mouth without her wanting to, mentally facepalming as Konata careened into her once again.

"Oh, I knew you'd come back to me Kagami, he he he!" Kagami decided to say nothing, but kept walking as normally as she could manage with the girl's arm wrapped around her. Tsukasa breathed a sigh of relief, and Miyuki just smiled and giggled at the situation. "I can't help feeling.. that there was another meaning to those words.. Konata seems to think that I said them because I didn't want her bothering Tsukasa, but.. Somehow I don't believe myself when I think about it..." Giving in, she looked away from her friends, trying to hide her embarassed face.

"You know.. I'm sort of getting used to having her hugging me. It feels weird when she isn't here.."

/-/

"What took you so long anyways? Usually you're out the door as soon as the bell rings." Kagami questioned Konata on why she was the last one to join them. It wasn't really an important conversation, just small talk as they made their way to the city. The group of friends had planned to spend the day shopping and agreed to eat dinner together.

"Oh, just chatting with sensei about that MMO. You should've seen the look on her face when I told her she missed the raid!" Konata giggled and thought back to it. "She was looking forward to it for about a month, but when she heard that she had to wait another month.. I've never seen her so sad before!" Kagami frowned as she tried to recall when the last time Kuroi was sad.

"The only thing I can remember is how tired she looks when she gets back from a hangover. That doesn't really count though.." Kagami sighed and looked at Konata's head. "What disturbs me is how satisfied you look. It's like you feed off of sadness."

Miyuki, listening in on the conversation, thought back to the last time she saw their normally upbeat teacher in a gloomy mood. "Hmm.. Remember that time when Konata knocked over the bottle of sake on her desk, and spilled it all over her computer? After she yelled at Konata, she looked rather distressed." Konata stared at Miyuki, blurting out her defense.

"It wasn't my fault that she left her drink there. Normally she puts it away in one of her drawers."

Smacking Konata on the head, Kagami huffed in annoyance. "Just because she left it on the table doesn't mean you're totally free of blame for knocking it over. That was all your fault, don't try to pin the blame somewhere else." Konata dramatically whined and clutched the injured spot.

"Aww, Kagamin's so cruel.. What could I possibly do to make her forgive me?!"

Kagami for some reason felt sort of bad for hitting Konata. Maybe it wasn't entirely the small girl's fault.. Accidents happen, right? "Eh.. you could come to Gamer's with me.. a new light novel just came out, and I want to pick up a copy. You could do it for me." She feigned disinterest, hoping that Konata would believe her somewhat truthful statement.

"Ohh! That's something I would ask you to do. Maybe I'm starting to rub off on you, with all the hugging you make me do, hmm?" Konata looked at Kagami with a questioning glint in her eyes. Normally Konata would be pestering Kagami to accompany her to the manga store, but today it seemed to be the other way around. "Sure, Kagamin! I'll escort you to the store, leave it to me!" Striking a dramatic pose, she pointed in the direction of Gamer's with stars in her eyes. Sighing, Kagami grabbed her arm and pulled her along behind her.

"If you're going to be so chatty about it, I may as well leave you behind."

Tsukasa and Miyuki watched in amusement, again, as Konata struggled to upright herself in Kagami's grip. Stifling a laugh, Tsukasa turned to Miyuki. "They're sort of funny to watch.. Did you want to go shopping while they're gone? We have a couple hours until we have to meet again.." Miyuki smiled her agreement and nodded.

"I don't mind. I wanted to check out this new store..."

/-/

She picked up a small plastic box and held it up to her face. Tilting it on its side, she carefully looked at the text on the back, before shaking it ever so slightly. Konata smiled that cat-like grin and quickly walks picks up the manga she had put down and walks over to the counter, where her friend was already paying and getting ready to go.

"Mm? I thought you were only buying manga. Typically you only buy figures on the day the new ones arrive." Kagami looked at the figure in the box that Konata had picked out. "Another one of those Haruhi characters. I know she loves the series, but she already has a ton!" Konata glanced at her, making her cat-like smile once again.

"Oh, this is a special one. I'll tell you later, but it's one that I don't have yet."

Collecting their new stuff, Kagami turned and looked at Konata expectantly. Seeing this, Konata took out the box and held it up for her friend to see. "I don't have this one yet because I was holding off on buying it until I could find a specially made one! Every shipment might have one or two, but sometimes there'll be none at all. If you show it to an expert, they'll tell you that it's the special figure and its value." Konata hummed happily, putting the box back into her bag. "I read up on the shipment yesterday, and they said that this was an exclusive shipment or whatever, so this figure will be worth about 20 times the value I bought it for." Kagami was pretty impressed by all this, but she didn't show it. Instead, she kept up her questioning.

"Well, how do you know it's the special one? What if you picked up a normal figure?"

"You see, there's ways to tell. Sometimes the boxes are waited, the labels are different, or the figure isn't the same as the others. This one, the text on the back was slanted by a tiny bit, and the figure isn't centered."

Kagami sighed. "You know too much about the wrong things. I've said this was impressive before, but it's strange how you memorize and notice all these little things, but you can't even remember a math formula." Konata smirked and explained.

"Well, everybody likes to focus more on their favorite things than the things they don't like doing. I like anime and manga, so I work hard at all this stuff. I wouldn't bother to learn everything about you if I wasn't planning to..." Her mouth stopped moving, and she frowned. "That was close. What was I saying?"

Kagami looked suspiciously at Konata. "She was talking about me, but then she went quiet. What was she about to say?" This was unusual because Konata was the type of person to say whatever they want, dismissively and openly. "What were you going to say?" Konata's cat-like grin had a slightly nervous edge, and she looked away quickly.

"Oh.. I-I was just.. going off topic." She quickly glanced around and looked for something to use as an excuse. "Oh, look! I'd recognize that moe hairstyle anywhere, it's got to be Miyuki! Let's go, Kagami!" Dashing off towards the pink hair, she left Kagami behind, who followed after her and called out for the athletic bluenette to slow down.

"Something's up. I don't know what.. but it feels like I do..."

/-/

"Bye Kona-chan! See you sis!"

"Later Tsukasa, Miyuki-san!"

"Goodbye Konata-san! Goodbye Kagami-san! Have a good night!"

"Bye Yuki-chan, Tsukasa! I'll take good care of Kagamin!" Konata yelled out her goodbye to the other two. Turning to Kagami, she noticed the annoyed expression on her face. "Eh..?"

"Hey, hey.. you know it's going to be me who's taking care of you, even though it's your house. After all, I'll bet that you only want my homework." Kagami rolled her eyes at Konata. She fell prey to Konata's tricks many times, so she made sure to be extra careful around her, especially when they were alone.

"Not this time, Kagami! I'm all done with my homework. I just figured it's been a while since the two of us have spent time together." Now this was surprising! Konata, done with her homework? Something was wrong..

"Hah.. I'll check it when we get there. I'll bet you scribbled down all the wrong answers." Kagami pointed a finger at Konata, a sign of her distrust in Konata's educational skills.

"Ah, Kagamin.. You underestimate me, fu fu fu.."

/-/

"My dad isn't home today, he's busy with work stuff. He said he'll be back tomorrow night, so we have all of today and tomorrow." Konata opened the door to her house and slipped her shoes off, stepping into the comfy, warm surroundings of the room. Quickly ascending the stairs, she called out to Kagami. "Why don't you wait in the living room? I'm going to change, you can come up after I'm done. Unless you want to peek, that is!"

Kagami nodded absent-mindedly, forgetting that Konata couldn't see her. Dropping her backpack against the wall, she realized she didn't bring a change of clothes. "Ah.. shoot. Guess I'm stuck in school uniform.." Kagami sighed and sat down, digging out her new light novel and starting to read. A minute later, Konata came down the stairs at running speed, and went over to the kitchen to get something to eat.

"Kagamin, are you okay with having some pocky? We have a lot of that.. Oh! And I'll grab some Calpis Soda too!"

Kagami just smiled and said her thanks, knowing that Konata would pick it out regardless. Konata knew what she liked. She walked up to the otaku's lair and walked through the open door, settling down at the table. As she returned to her book, she heard the sound of cabinets closing, drinks being opened, and then the soft pattering of feet up the stairs. A tray of snacks was set on the table, and then there was a head of blue hair blocking half her vision.

"Whatcha reading, Kagamin?" Konata asked, her voice sing-songy as she tried to get a glimpse of the book. Kagami in turn slowly pushed Konata's head away and showed her the cover.

"It's a light novel in that one series I showed you. This is the latest book. I can lend it to you, since you're pretty much caught up with me."

"Ah, thanks. I'll read it after you're done with it." Walking over to the pile of manga on her bed, she grabbed one and walked back to the table, sitting across from Kagami and sticking a pocky in her mouth. Sitting there, with her eyes lax and moving back and forth over the comic, Konata really looked.. normal. It was a strange sight, if she had to say so herself. It was so rare to see Konata in such a docile mood, with her usually being.. crazy, otaku Konata. Kagami was caught up watching her face, which was sort of fun to watch. Every once in a while, Konata's eyes would light up, her mouth would open in surprise, or she would smile, or she would frown. It was the most relaxing thing, watching her expressions change so easily. "She's.. sort of cute, when she's not being a total otaku."

Kagami blinked, before mentally facepalming. "Oh, crap. Can't believe I just thought about Konata, of all people, as cute."

"...I'm so confused right now."

"Kagamin." Konata looked over to notice her friend completely lost, staring straight at her. She had almost jumped at first, but she decided to stare back and see if that elicited a reaction.

"Well, I guess she sort of is.. Anyone would say that.. right?"

"Ka-ga-miiin." Konata didn't think that Kagami was the type of person to daydream. After all, she hated being tricked or being the victim of any pranks, and this was the sort of thing that led to pranks. Speaking of pranks, she had a good idea. Konata put her manga face down, stood up and walked over to her best friend.

"Geez. I'm falling for my best friend. And it's a girl."

Suddenly she felt someone wrapping her arms around her waist. "Wh.. Huh?! K-Konata, what are you doing?!" Jumping at the touch, she suddenly found the book she was reading incredibly absorbing. For a moment, it was quiet. Then, a slow voice spoke directly into her ear.

"You were watching me really intently.. What do you find so interesting about me, Ka-ga-min?" As she dragged out the nickname, Konata reached up and turned Kagami's head around to face her.

Touching her chin to her chest, Konata smiled and made Kagami look directly into her emerald eyes, then looked down at her mouth. Before she could push the girl away, Konata had leaned forwards, eyes closed, and Kagami felt something being pushed between her lips.

"Konata.. you.. wait, this is a pocky stick!"

Blinking in shock, poor Kagami was still in a daze. Turning her head back around, Konata then returned to hugging the confused girl.

After Kagami had realized what just happened, she silently closed her book and stared at her lap. The shock that was evident on her features gradually faded, but there was still a streak of red across her cheeks.

"Konata?" Her voice was lower than normal.

"Yes, Kagami?" Konata responded in the same tone, the same volume.

"I'm.. confused.. I don't know what to think anymore..."

Konata's eyes widened and uncharacteristacally was speechless. Kagami wasn't blushing crazily, or hitting her, or yelling at her? This was new, this was.. strange. The stunned otaku regained her composure, but as she started to stand up, Kagami grabbed her hands and kept her there. "K-Kagami.."

Sighing, Kagami marveled at how skinny Konata's arms were. "This.. feels sort of nice.. but.. I don't know if it's okay or not.." She was arguing with herself on the inside. Is it wrong to feel this way with her best friend? While she was thinking, the Konata threw all caution to the wind. She took a deep breath.

"Kagami.. You probably already know where this is going, but.. I want to say.. that.." Her voice cracked, at which point Kagami's eyes widened in surprise. She knew that Konata had realized how weird she was acting, but now Konata was acting differently. "Uhh.. I really like you Kagami. You've always been so, so forgiving. With me. Like, I always annoyed you and stuff but you always stayed my friend.. even if it took a couple days." With this, Konata stood quickly and slowly walked out of the room. "Thanks.. Kagamin. Please.. don't leave me for this.. If you left, I'd be broken.."

Kagami ate the pocky. Her mind was frantically trying to recompose itself, although her body already had. Sitting quietly for minutes, she eventually came to a solution. She put her book down and followed her best friend.

A/N

Oh hi oh! It's been a while! Finally got back into the mood of writing, after leaving two of my stories at dreadful hiatus. Back with a Lucky Star story! I don't really know if people still read these, but I rewatched the series and was suddenly motivated by my obsession with the characters. I do apologize if anything seems out of character or not like it should be in the canon series, but I need some plot devices and freedom with this, so review and leave me advice and stuff! Other authors are saying how they live off of reviews, but I wouldn't know, having only gotten about 5. Anyways, please enjoy!

Sym: Hey, welcome the the chapter's end. My name is Sym, and I'm here with Konata Izumi! *throws his hands up in a dramatic gesture*

Konata: Thank you, thank you. Why am I here?

Sym: Oh, I was going to ask you about something related to the chapter.

Konata: Alright. Well, I've been having feelings about my best friend Kagamin for a while, and today I was originally going to play a prank on her, but she-

Sym: As much as I would love to hear you spoil what my imagination should be doing, that's not what we're here for today.

Konata: Ah, sorry, sorry.

Sym: So, you claimed that you were all done with your homework. But Kuroi was too tired and sad to assign any homework.

Konata: Ohh, that! Well, I noticed that Kagami was making another jab at me not doing my work, so I decided to say that I was all done, before telling her that we didn't have homework. I guess I didn't have time to finally tell her, since she sort of.. You know. Fell in love with me! *giggles and winks*

Sym: Alright, thanks for clearing that up. Time to wrap up! See you in the next chapter!