Hi all! Again! For the third time!
Nyaa, I remember thinking to myself that chapter four was going to be hard. I guess I was half-right and half-wrong… It was only hard to start, and it just sorta flowed from there.
Spikesaggita, there's really no need to worry! I'm not mean enough to cause any of our beloved characters from Lucky Star to die. That'd make me feel really bad! So, you can rest assured.
DreamShadower, it is an interesting crossover, isn't it! Considering that Kagami doesn't really even wake up this chapter, you can safely bet that the next chapter will blow her mind! And I didn't think about that song 'I'm Blue', although it does kinda fit.
Anyway, enough of my rabble-rabble-rabble, on with the story!
Tape
Kagami was dreaming. She had to be. Why else would she be floating above a lake? It was nighttime, and she could see for a long distance in any direction that she looked. She couldn't tell where she was, but knowing it was a dream, she doubted it was anywhere at all. Floating high above the lake, she shivered as a breeze blew past her, and flew down a bit to escape the cold drafts up above.
The surface of the lake was almost like glass, so much so that Kagami had to touch the water to make sure that it actually was a lake, and not some sort of weird pseudo-lake. Kagami was no stranger to messed-up dreams. Circular ripples and the cold wet sensation on her finger let her know that, yes, it was in fact a lake. At least, as real as a lake could be, in a dream.
Floating gently above the surface of the water, she wandered a bit, exploring her surroundings. In dreams like this, she liked to see what she would be able to do, unrestricted by the waking world. She saw that underneath the surface there were fish swimming in circles, around and around, circling around her reflection. Kagami smiled, rolling around to float on her back, looking at the sky. So many stars were there, and Kagami wondered at how many she could name.
She laughed at that thought, remembering that she was dreaming and that more than likely the sky she was seeing wasn't the same as the sky in the real world. She nodded, smiling. She was looking at her own personal sky. For some reason that thought made her happy.
Of course, dreams sometimes turn sour, and Kagami was already mentally exhausted from being sick. One second she was floating about above the water, and the next she was surrounded by the cold fluid. The water felt like liquid ice against her skin, and Kagami tried to gasp out, losing what little air was in her lungs. She struggled to swim, forgetting she was dreaming, but only drifted further and further down into the dark, frigid water.
###
It was 1:30 in the morning. Kagami had been knocked out on the couch for the better part of a day, and she was still there, shivering slightly, tossing and turning occasionally. It was a shame she had to miss what was currently happening.
Kagami's television had turned itself on, to one of the many late-night anime channels. It seemed as if it was any other series, except that one of the characters was a lot shorter than the others.
"Hey, I can't help it that my growth was stunted!" she complained, but none of the characters listened, talking amongst themselves as if she weren't there. The young girl—she really did look to be about 14—smiled at that, looking towards the 'camera'. Rather, she looked to where the camera would have been, if there was one. Stepping closer and closer, she had an almost catlike grin on her face, and she crouched, readying to pounce, it seemed.
"Fumoffu!" she shouted, and with a lunge, launched herself at the camera with a flash of blue hair.
A dull thud echoed out into the room, followed by a small groan of pain. If Kagami had been awake to see it happen, she'd have probably been on the floor, body wracked with laughter. Fortunately, the blue-haired girl in the TV was spared that fate, and stood from where she had fallen, looking at the screen of the television from the inside, it seemed.
Poking and prodding, feeling around the edges of the piece of glass, she finally made a sound of triumph.
"A-ha!"
A press of a small button she had found, and the short whirring of a motor later, and she had managed to get the screen of the television to open from the inside.
Had Kagami been awake, this would be around the point where she stopped laughing and gave the television a worried glance, checking her temperature. But she was still out cold, mumbling something about ice and fish.
The short blue-haired girl poked her head out of the television, looking remarkably similar to her anime-inspired character in the television. Same cat-like grin, same fluff of blue hair, and same height problem. Seeing Kagami sleeping on the couch, the girl gave a light sigh of relief, smiling.
"She didn't see me make a fool of myself, that's good," she smiled out, crawling out of the television carefully, the opening only about 14 inches across.
'Kinda tight, even for me,' she thought, wriggling her hips to get them past the opening. Finally, she was out, and lay on the carpeting of the room for a moment, taking in the fact that she was actually out. She couldn't remember the last time she had been out of the tape.
In fact, she couldn't remember why she had been in there in the first place. It had been all she had known, for so long, she had forgotten anything else.
How this woman on the couch had freed her, how she had gotten the tape was another mystery. She had been so excited when she realized someone was watching the tape that she almost called before the person was done watching! It's a good thing she didn't, otherwise something bad would have happened—she knew because there had to be a certain order to these things. She hadn't forgotten that much.
Standing and brushing herself off a bit, she stretched, rubbing her hands together. One thing she hadn't realized before she got out of the tape was that inside the tape was cold! Really, freezing!
She basked in the warmth for a moment longer, but was pulled from her reverie by a tiny whimper coming from the couch. Looking at Kagami, the girl crouched down next to her to get a closer look. It was dark, but the girl could plainly see that Kagami's forehead was covered in a light sheen of sweat, and that the girl was shivering.
Shaking her head, the short girl looked around for a moment until she saw the door that lead to the bedroom, then nodded in determination.
###
The dream had changed, now making a little more sense to Kagami's tired mind. She thought about that for a moment, 'Aren't dreams supposed to revitalize your brain?' She filed that away, thinking back to the matter at hand. It was dark, and Kagami was warm and incredibly peaceful.
"Ha, it feels like I want to go to sleep while I'm dreaming," she murmered, floating lazily through the void. She smiled, 'If only all dreams were this nice…'
She felt the brush of something light across her cheek, but since it was dark, she couldn't see what it was. She felt it again, and was overcome with the scent of lilacs. She nearly melted at that, and reached a hand out to attempt grabbing whatever was brushing her cheek. She nabbed something, and it only took a moment to realize it was hair. Soft hair.
Kagami relaxed, curling into this warmth she felt, holding firm on the tuft of hair she held… For this brief, peaceful moment she was warm; comfortable; and most importantly, loved.
###
The blue-haired girl smiled, glad that the woman she held in her arms didn't weigh as much as she would have guessed.
'She must really watch her figure, I guess,' the girl thought, smiling, 'She's done a pretty good job, I'd say.'
Murmuring a little bit, Kagami curled closer to the girl's shoulder. Smiling at the moment she was sharing with the purple-haired woman, blue carried her the short distance to the bedroom, setting her on the bed as gently as she could. When she went to stand, though, she discovered with a yank that Kagami had grasped on to her hair, and it didn't seem like she would be letting go any time soon. The girl smiled and shook her head, pulling the blanket back some and sliding in beside Kagami, sighing contentedly at the warmth she felt underneath the covers. Curled up against the taller woman, the girl giggled underneath the covers. It was really warm there, and she just grinned, poking her head up to look at Kagami for a moment.
"I know you can't hear me, but… I'm Konata," she whispered, reaching a hand up to stroke away a strand of purple hair from Kagami's face. Smiling brightly, Konata slid back underneath the warm covers, revelling in how comfortable it was. Soon enough, she felt Kagami's hands loosen from her hair, instead wrapping around the smaller girl's form, pulling her close. Konata sighed in contentment. She couldn't remember ever being this warm, and it was causing her to fall asleep. Before she slid off into slumber, she murmered into Kagami's shoulder, happily,
"Thanks for freeing me."
