Wondering what I'm doing? Well…

……

I don't really know, okay?!

I know that I'm waiting in front of the cosplay cafe she works at. Why is that? Hm, maybe it's because she's the girl I love, the one that obsesses over manga and anime and is not ashamed of her otaku status.

I'm not exactly ready to reveal the fact that whenever I see her, the thought "I WISH TO REJECT STRAIGHTNESS IN FAVOR OF BEING ABLE TO RAVAGE YOUR CURVACIOUS BODY AS I WISH" swirls madly in my head and threatens to push its way out of my mouth while I –

Argh! That isn't what I meant! Stop it, me! Enough! Enough already!

Okay, I admit that the thought has passed through my mind once. At least. Maybe twice. Possibly a little more than a few times.

Never mind that! Moving on!

What are my feelings for her? That's hard to explain…

I want to share my interests and hobbies with her, but at the same time I can't help but hide them from her prying eyes. She's not exactly the smartest girl in the world, but her creativity and energy certainly make up for that, tenfold. It's a lot more than I can say – I always become bashful at the slightest embarrassment.

I don't even think I've seen her blush (except maybe that one time when a random classmate commented on how large her bust was). Whenever someone brings up one of her faults, she either laughs it off or takes it into stride. Sometimes, when I'm alone in my room and not working for a change, I sit and wonder what it would take to –

"Oh, what's up, Hiyori?"

Wha – s-s-she's here already?! Man, I'm always too wrapped up in my own thoughts to notice my surroundings! What should I say – what should I do?!

"Kiss her! Duh," replies my subconscious.

Great. Not only do I act strangely in front of my friends, but I'm also completely and totally bent out of a straight (no pun intended) state of mind. Gah!

"Are you okay? You're kind of staring at my shoulder, you know." Her breath comes out in puffs of white, which is hardly surprising. After all, it's December and it's freezing outside.

Speaking of which, I'm not wearing any particularly warm clothing: just a medium-sized coat with a long-sleeved garment underneath. Wonderful. My face is probably pink, numb, and funny looking.

"Yeah, I'm fine. How was, uh, work?" I try to hide my expression by fiddling with my glasses.

She laughs theatrically. "It's the same as usual: cosplay, talk with Konata a little bit, entertain the A-boys – nothing much." Her eyes then narrow mischievously as she asks, "And what about your work? Is that new doujinshi coming along well?"

I wince. That is exactly the topic I do not want to discuss with her, but seeing as none of our friends are around, I guess it wouldn't hurt too much.

"I've been having some trouble getting inspiration for my new work," I confess. It really is true – I actually saw Minami carrying, yes, CARRYING, Yutaka to the nurse's office after she had the misfortune to receive a direct K.O. to the head during P.E., but nothing happened. No fantasies, no alternate realities – nothing! It was nice to have a clear head for a change, but these occurrences are my direct source for my doujinshi. Without new material, I'll be penniless at the next Comiket!

"Writer's block again?" Her hand makes a single wave through the air. "No worries, you'll pull through just like you always do –"

Wow, does she really have that much faith in me? Maybe she's not quite the airhead I thought she was after all.

"– but you might have to pull some all-nighters or something. You'll slave away and waste all your youth, you know."

I take that back! What the heck happened to her previous image of "kind and caring friend"?!

"I'm just kidding, Hiyori! No need to look so serious!"

Hey, is she putting an arm around my shoulder?

Oh, gods –

"You really do have a lot of talent, you know. Anyways, why are you here again?"

Mmm, feels nice and warm. Does the cafe have a heater or something? I wouldn't know, I haven't gathered up the courage to actually come inside myself and check. There might be a small chance that she would be wearing an outfit too attractive for me to control myself, and…well. Yeah.

"Um, it's not that I'm not happy to see you or anything, but I was just wondering, you know."

Oh, snap! She took my silence for anger or something, didn't she? Ugh, now I know how Iwasaki-san feels like. Come on, focus, me!

"I just, uh, wanted to, well, walk with you – t-t-to keep you company! Y-you must feel lonely walking home by yourself, right? So I just decided to wait for you…until you finished your shift!" This time, I fiddle with the buttons of my coat.

Inwardly, I'm slapping myself. Focus, my ass.

"Is that so?"

I gulp and fervently hope that she won't notice that the pinkness on my cheeks isn't just from the cold now. "Y-yeah."

We walk silently for a few minutes. The cold air has calmed me down a little bit now, and I finally get the courage to start another conversation. "Hey…do you always wear your Mikuru outfit at the cafe, or do you have other cosplay uniforms?"

She laughs again – I don't think I'll ever get tired of her laughs – and replies, "Of course, silly! Even though season two came out and the craze started up again, we've still got to cater to the rest of the otaku masses!" She answers my unasked question by saying, "Today, I dressed up as Yomi and Konata was Kagura. Our coworker was Mei. We wanted our coworker to be Kagura, originally, but we decided that she looked much better in a kimono."

I know this series well – it's known for…frankly, girls' love elements. I swear, she's teasing me. Hoping to avoid an embarrassing topic, I immediately bring up a relatively safe one.

"I thought that Mei was anime only, though," I say.

"You read the manga?" I nod in response. She gives a shrug.

"Well, just think about it this way – most of the guys who come to the cafe are more anime oriented. They just want the fan service and probably don't care about the plot. Oops, scratch that. They do care about the facts and stuff, just not as much as, say, hardcore manga fans like you," she explains.

Ah, that makes sense, I guess. Still, there are a few things that don't quite fit. "Yomi and Kagura don't seem very fan service heavy, though, unless they're interacting solely with each other. Yomi's too tough and Kagura is too timid. Plus, Mei is a little unapproachable, isn't she?"

She's smirking now. "And that's why it was a special event today. It was cosplaying while cosplaying! We gave them a popular moe trait to get the boys going, you know? I got the bunny suit, Konata got the maid outfit, and our coworker used the glasses girl card. She looked surprisingly good in glasses. We got a lot of requests from our regulars to have her do the Yuki cosplay with glasses as well."

"Is that so…" From what she's told me about the cafe, Konata plays Haruhi, she plays Mikuru, and one of their coworkers plays Yuki. They don't really know much about her, aside from the fact that she is either really good at her job or she's actually some kind of Yuki clone – she looks and acts just like the character.

Still, I wouldn't know. Sigh. I really should come to the cafe…ooh, but I might risk – hey!

"W-what are you doing to my glasses?"

"I'm trying them on, Hiyori," she says amusedly. "Duh."

"I know that!" I reply with a frantic edge to my voice. "Why, though?"

I can't see clearly, but I can see the outlines of most things and get the general idea of what's going on. For example, I know that she has my glasses on, though I can't really tell what kind of face she's making.

Maybe I shouldn't tell her that I can see all of this –I might be able to use this to my advantage.

"Hn, I just wanted to see if the glasses turn on factor worked for me, too," she says.

If this situation had happened a few months ago, I would've laughed nervously and asked for my glasses back. Now, I laugh nervously and let her do what she wants.

Why? I want to see if she thinks I look better with my glasses on than without them.

I'm so pathetic.

Who am I kidding? No guy, or girl, would want to date someone like me. I only have an average build, standard black hair, and a way-too-passionate personality. Even the turn-on factor of glasses doesn't work because I'm not clumsy – I'm just a weirdgirl with a dirty mind.

"In my opinion, you look fine without your glasses," she chirps as she fiddles around with them.

I remain silent, but inside I crumble a little at the statement. I can't achieve the cute glasses-girl status, or any "cute" status like this. I'm just so…so…

"Hot."

What?

I have to squint to see, but it looks as though she's taken off my glasses. "With or without your glasses, I think you look pretty nice."

Is it just me, or does she sound just as nervous as I feel?

"Anyway…I bet you're wondering how I look with your glasses on."

Actually, I got the basic picture of it (it's pretty cute), but I do wish I could see the details. And so, I reply with a, "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Okay, then. Lean in, then." She bends her neck slightly, as though words aren't enough to make me come closer.

Strange. She hasn't put my glasses back on. Oh well, I'll play along.

Her face is really close to mine now. If she had freckles, I could probably count them, even without my glasses – that's how small the distance between us is. Thing is, she doesn't have freckles, only creamy white skin with a hint of a tan in it from living in the sunny States.

We're just staring at each other now. Awkward. I've had enough, so I decide to speak up.

"Pa –"

…?!

The moment I open my mouth, I get stopped by something exceedingly warm.

Warmer than that arm around my shoulder from before.

Warmer still because of the cold.

In fact, I don't think I can feel the cold right now, because her soft lips are on mine.

She's kissing me.

The shock doesn't even register until after she breaks away, and then it took a full minute after that for me to realize what she had done.

"You…" I touch my frozen fingers to my tingling lips. They're a sharp contrast to the warmth they were in contact with not too long ago.

Suddenly, I'm extremely grateful that she's so outgoing and eccentric. Any other person would've run away after something like that, without pausing to give an explanation. But because she isn't any other person, she still stands in front of me. Damn you, why did you have to take my glasses? I can't tell if you're blushing or not!

"Hiyori…" she says. "I know we're friends, so I'll just say it outright. Although we're both girls, I think I like you – love you, actually. Can I…can I be your girlfriend?"

Forget what I said before. Now I'm really in shock. I never knew she could be so sentimental and direct.

That's it. I've lost control. I've made my decision now.

"Patricia Martin…I love you too," I say before craning my head up to kiss her back.

My senses feel sharpened, minus my vision because of the lack of glasses. I can taste the bright (is it possible for brightness to have a taste?) and sweet flavor of her lips, smell a light hint of cakes from her working at the cafe, hear our combined gasping breaths as we struggle against our lack of expertise, and feel the pulsing of her blood under her skin.

It's heaven. It's a much more romantic winter meeting that I thought it would be.

Finally, we stop as to not suffocate ourselves from a lack of oxygen. She looks at me. I look at her…and then freeze in horror when I see what the clock on the building behind her reads.

"Patricia! I'm so sorry, I can't take you home!" I stutter. "I have to go! I'll…I'll call you!" I turn towards the direction of my house, but I'm stopped by her. Before I can even ask why, she slips something into my coat pocket.

"Your glasses, silly," she whispers before giving me a light push. "You can go now."

Oh, right. Glasses. Very important.

"Thanks!" I say to her.

I hear her laugh one last time for the night as I hurry home. Presumably, she's walking in the opposite direction, so I allow myself to relax and finally succumb to the thoughts I had been damming up before. Or maybe it was just because the kiss made me lose my mind. Anyways…

There are a few things running through my mind right now, each with various degrees of certainty and uncertainty.

First, that kiss made me suddenly aware of the difference in our heights. Is it some kind of American thing to be so freaking tall, or is it just that Japanese girls are really short? Well, the next time it happens, someone is going to have to compromise: either she's going to have to bend her knees slightly or I'm going to have to tiptoe a little bit. Her neck was bent all the way down and mine was tilted up almost vertically, which is very, very uncomfortable, especially if you're holding that position for a while.

Second, I am about ninety-five percent sure that my parents are going to kill me for staying out so late. The other five percent depends on if the gods are finally going to send some mercy down to me and let me sneak back to my room in peace…which I highly doubt. Just the thought of it is making me run faster.

The next thing is my glasses. They better have been in one of her pockets or something while we kissed, because my parents will dig up my grave later and burn my corpse if they get broken again!

Also, I'm wondering which one of us recognized our love for the other first. A romance genre artist has to have some pride in these types of situations, you know.

Last but not least? In the end, I don't give a damn about any of the above. I was just freaking making out with Patricia Martin, and it was hotter than hell.

Well, I now have a new yuri pairing to blush over. Take that, inspiration!

A/N

MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS! I missed the date since I went on a trip somewhere with no Internet access, so the earliest I could submit it was today... *manly tears trail down*

Did anyone get misled into thinking that the story was Konami at the beginning? That could work in the first few lines…then you get to the "curvy body" part. NO OFFENSE KONATA, BUT YOU'RE A LOLI. PATTY GETS THE BIG BOOBS, HAHA.

Hiyori is actually pretty short (but not as short as our resident lolis *coughs* Konata and Yutaka *abruptly stops coughing and sneezes once*). The Lucky Star Bandai website profile puts her at around five feet or something! LOL, I would probably look like that one scary foreigner guy from Tsukasa and Konata's first meeting if all of them are that short. Anyways, while I was typing stuff on my computer last night, I noticed that I tend to make Hiyori call Patricia "Patricia" in private and "Patty" in public in my imagination/mental replays of the anime. I don't know why, maybe I have a name fetish or something.

I've been reading fanfiction like crazy and watching yuri anime (Queen's Blade is so freaking hot). I think my writing has improved a lot from my last fanfiction. Thanks to everyone who reviewed my first story and left tips and suggestions – especially that one about reading some literature to improve my speech. It was complete hell, but I eventually got around to reading actual…books…I sorely missed my manga and doujinshi during that time. Oh, and I also finally got rid of my Japan-ophile thing, at least in my fanfiction writing. Man, I so really want to write a lemon, but I'm also scared because I suck at those.

OH YEAH OH YEAH did you get the voice actress joke with Konata and Kagura? Speaking of which, Aya Hirano voices someone in Queen's Blade, too…*gets another nosebleed*

Oh my effing GOD this story was long. It's like two times as long as my first one that I posted in April. I feel very much accomplished because of this. :)

You've finished the first half of R&R, so be a man (or woman, I guess, if girls like reading this stuff) and go through with the second half and review, please!