This ficlet takes place during the first summer where the girls visit Chiyo's vacation house. Fans of both the manga and the anime know of that photo that got Kaorin hyperventilating, and fans of the manga will also know that Tomo can be disruptive during the evening. Here I thought I'd explore the lead-up to that photo.

I've kept it clean too! Well to the extent that the series goes (e.g. innuendo).

Please rate, review and enjoy!

-dm-stealth

P.S. Apologies Kagura fans but this was prior to Yukari pulling strings to get her transferred and speaking canonically the girls only know her from swim club and haven't held their sports meet yet, hence her absence.

Minamo "Nyamo" Kurosawa let a yawn escape and looked at the time.

"I think we should probably be getting to bed."

Yukari Tanizaki and Tomo Takino groaned. It felt like the group had only just returned from their fireworks show on the beach and now the P.E. teacher was suggesting that they all call it a night.

"Oh COME ON!" Yukari protested. "It's not a work night. Remember we're on vacation!"

Minamo frowned. "That's funny, all you could do was sleep when the topic of semester plans came up."

"Ugh, you had to bring that up," Yukari muttered. "My energy and motivation's suddenly gone... just like that."

That was one wildcat dealt with but Tomo, continuing to pout on the sofa was going to be a little harder to persuade. Even on school nights Tomo was prone to staying up until early morning either watching television or playing videogames. And as everyone knew, it didn't do her schoolwork any favours.

"Don't tell me you're all for going to bed so early?" Tomo asked, looking for support.

From the moment Minamo had made her proposition, the other girls were already preparing their sleeping bags.

"Kurosawa Sensei's right Tomo," Koyomi "Yomi" Mizuhara conceded. "It's going to be a long ride back and we'll need to get an early start".

The mere mention of the journey back made the youngest Chiyo Mihama shudder.

Tomo waved her hand dismissively. "We could just go to sleep on the way back."

Ayumu 'Osaka' Kasuga pondered this suggestion with a tilt of her head. "Is it possible to sleep on a jet?"

"I'm not having you snoring all the way back," Yomi muttered. "You're going to bed."

"Ah but I don't think you'd hear it over the roar of the jet engines," Osaka opined.

Tomo was rapidly fighting a losing battle. "Sakaki? What d'you th-"

Tomo stopped mid sentence when she saw the tall girl had changed into her summer sleepwear. Having not paid attention to Tomo's pleas Sakaki returned a quizzical expression.

"Never mind," Tomo grumbled. "You guys are lame."

Sakaki was left looking a bit confused and dejected.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"Ladies and gentleman, your attention please! Welcome to the Summer Gymnastics Extravaganza!"

The lights were out in the summer house, plunging the dwelling into darkness save for the moonlit sky visible from the windows. The two teachers were sharing a room, Chiyo had her own room, it being her summer house and all, while the remaining girls had their bedding laid out in the living room.

An hour on from lights out most of the inhabitants had gone to sleep, except of course for one. Tomo may have conceded defeat in convincing her friends to stay up a bit longer and go to bed, but that didn't mean she was going to get to sleep. Far from it. All this energy just couldn't be suppressed, Tomo just didn't do things that way.

Nor did she want to.

"Here's our returning champion, Tomo Takino! Though she may have suffered a chance defeat against fellow competitor Sakaki in the 100 metres, Tomo holds the world record when it comes to this event"

Tomo got up from her sleeping bag and stood determined like a soldier on inspection parade. In the darkness her face was blank and completely focused.

If only she were able to demonstrate this discipline during class time.

"All competitors ready? 3... 2... 1..."

Tomo somersaulted from sleeping bag to sleeping bag with the other girls becoming her impromptu obstacles. But just like at school her athletic abilities didn't gel with those within her fantasies.

"OW! What the hell was that?"

"Was that my foot?"

"Hey!"

"TOMO!"

Yomi grabbed the wildcat's leg on one of her passes sending her crashing down face-first onto her sleeping bag.

"OW! I could've hit the floor if I had been an inch the other way!" Tomo yelled.

Sakaki turned on the lights and rubbed her hip, having been trodden on during her slumber. Yomi was sitting up with clenched fists glaring at Tomo whom was sprawled out between sleeping bags. Osaka rose slowly, eyes seemingly closed but she was smiling.

"I just had a really weird dream. This foot was pushed against my face and I couldn't figure out if it was mine. So then I went looking for Chiyo..."

"Do you want me to put you to sleep?" Yomi the now-sitting up Tomo.

Tomo smirked. "What? By talking about your dieting? That always w-"

Yomi with lightning speed grabbed Tomo's lips before she could continue. "I mean it. Do you want me to put you to sleep?"

"Mmmo," Tomo muffled, dread starting to appear in her eyes.

"Then go to sleep!" Yomi ordered, then almost as quickly released her grip and laid back in her sleeping bag.

Sakaki turned off the lights, deliberately not acknowledging this exchange between her two friends in an effort to get back to her dreams.

"I guess they didn't like my story," Osaka lamented quietly.

Yomi cringed. It took what felt like 20 minutes to drift back to sleep when again she was interrupted. This time it sounded like murmurs. On further deliberation Yomi figured it was humming... a broken tune but humming nonetheless.

She opened her eyes and turned to Tomo, whom was now staring at the ceiling. Yomi couldn't tell without her glasses but Tomo had a very serious look on her face as she hummed a few more bars.

"Tomo," Yomi said in a harsh whisper. "What are you doing now?"

"D'you know that song, Kokoro ha syoujyo de parachute?" Tomo said, barely attempting to keep her voice down.

Yomi just stared. "What?"

Tomo sat up and faced her, leaning on her pillow. "I'm asking have you ever heard it?"

"I think so, but why are you asking me that at this time of night?" Yomi demanded, still whispering but getting more and more agitated.

"Doesn't that sound exactly like Sakaki?" Tomo asked, eyeing towards the slumbering girl.

"You're asking me if-at this time of-" Yomi struggled to answer, her left eyebrow twitching. "Why are you even thinking about that?!"

Tomo shrugged, laid back down and returned to staring at the ceiling confused. "I don't know, it just came to me while I was laying here".

Tomo started humming the song again but was interrupted by a pillow held over her face.

"SHUT-UP-AND-GO-TO-SLEEP!" Yomi growled, then released her hold on the pillow.

Tomo gasped for air and considered doing the same to her irate friend for a moment, opting to stick her tongue out in the darkness.

"I wonder what'd be on TV right now?"

Tomo remained staring up at the ceiling after her last altercation with Yomi. This time she took the hint and ceased humming, at least for the moment.

"I'm positive that's her singing! We have to go do karaoke sometime, then I'll know for sure!"

As she wandered from one tangent of thought to another in her mind, the peace was disturbed by someone other than herself. A rare event such as this deserved the great Tomo Takino's full attention. It sounded a bit like cries of terror.

"Chiyo?"

She found the source. Within her room the ten-year-old was tossing and turning in her sleep, having a nightmare.

"No... the truck... red means stop... the truck..." she mumbled

Tomo got one of her wicked ideas. She crept to her luggage and felt around for something in the darkness until she found a metal object. This would certainly freak the little genius out. She crept back up to Chiyo, whom was still trapped in her dream.

"The truck... stop... can't you see the truck..."

Tomo got as close as she could and took out her camera.

"BEEP! BEEP!" she yelled, hitting the button and lighting the room with the flash lamp.

Chiyo leapt out of bed screaming. Everyone was awake now. Turning on the lights. Sakaki, Yomi and Osaka rushed to see what was going on. Chiyo was at the head of the bed trembling, drenched with sweat and eyes wide. Next to the bed was Tomo with a pathetically faux look of innocence, hiding something behind her back.

Sakaki darted to the bed and hugged Chiyo, trying to calm her down.

"Are you alright?" she asked soothingly.

"The truck... it killed us all! I saw the headlights... I heard it!" Chiyo stammered.

Yomi just glared at Tomo. "What did you do this time?"

"Nuh-thing," Tomo answered in a melodic tone. "I just came to see what all the noise was about like the rest of you."

Sakaki rose her head from cradling Chiyo and frowned at Tomo, unconvinced.

"Yeah. That's why you were here ahead of us right?" Yomi replied sarcastically.

Osaka was impressed. "So Tomo's now faster than Sakaki?"

"Who screamed? What's going on?"

Yukari and Minamo were now in the doorway behind Yomi, still bleary-eyed from being woken so abruptly. While they may be accused of jumping to conclusions, their eyes rested on the sheepish Tomo.

"Tell us what happened," Minamo demanded.

Tomo frowned. "Why does everyone think I did something?"

"Tell us NOW," Yukari snapped. "What are you hiding?"

Tomo returned to her innocent look as she revealed the camera. "I thought Chiyo looked real funny when she was sleeping so I thought I'd take a picture. And I guess I woke her up, heh."

"Oh. Next time will Tomo take a picture of me sleeping?" Osaka asked, smiling.

The others continued to glare but for Chiyo, whom was still shaking in Sakaki's arms.

Yukari took hold of a nearby magazine, rolled it up and hurdled towards Tomo. The wildcat took off out of the room before her teacher could land a blow, not that this was going to be a deterrent.

"I'm sorry I woke you up Yukari Sensei!"

"IDIOT!" Yukari yelled whilst swinging the magazine back and forth.

"That will be a good one," Osaka thought out loud.

Tomo stirred. "Wha-what's going on here?"

Tomo rose her head bleary eyed, not sure if she was still dreaming. Once the dust had settled after the events from last night and Yukari had stopped hitting her, Tomo had finally got to sleep.

As an added incentive to get some shut-eye, Yomi kept a vigil and threatened to tell Yukari if Tomo didn't get to sleep. That magazine really hurt.

Tomo's vision began to clear and standing above her was Osaka, smiling in self-satisfaction. In her hands was Tomo's camera.

"I hope you took mine already because I'm awake now," Osaka noted. "But I can go to sleep again if you want. I'm good at that sort of thing"

She understood the words Tomo couldn't make any sense of what was said, so she continued to look up at Osaka in bewilderment.

Osaka then pointed towards her. "I got both of you in one shot."

"Both of-what are you talking ab-" Tomo spat out before she looked to see what Osaka was pointing at.

It wasn't her pillow Tomo had been nuzzling but a lock of long, silky hair. She also came to the realization she had her arm around someone and from their heartbeat she could feel this someone was a bit concerned.

Tomo sat up to see who it was she had been cuddling nocturnally. If it was Yomi she would hold it over her head for all time.

She found Sakaki looking back at her, looking uneasy given the awkward situation. "Why?"

Tomo shot up, put her hands behind her head and grinned sheepishly. "Heh I guess I rolled over during my sleep. I do that sometimes."

"I see..." Sakaki answered, giving Tomo a strange look before getting up and leaving the room.

"Did Tomo give me a hug when I was asleep?" Osaka asked curiously.

"Hey what's for breakfast! I'm starving!" Tomo stated in a lousy attempt to change the subject.

"I don't think you can hug that," Osaka mused. "Although did I tell you about my dream about this foot..."