"Hey Maya! Kaorin, are you here?" Sakaki bent down and caught her cat as he leaped gracefully into her arms. She stood up and looked around the apartment in time to see the short haired girl poke her smiling face around the corner from the kitchen.
"Welcome home Sakaki! How was work?"
Sakaki walked into the kitchen, following the smell of fresh curry and rice.
"It was a really good day, actually. Nothing serious, just a lot of standard shots and grooming. There was a beautiful black cat with green eyes that I wanted to bring home to Maya." She giggled as the cat in question looked at her. Was he wishing she'd brought him home a lady friend as well?
"That's great! I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning. We just got some new equipment and they asked me to help with calibration! It'll be about four hours of looking through a telescope before class!" Kaorin grinned at the prospect and scraped two plates of food out of the pot for her and her roommate.
"Have you reconsidered going into astronomy now that you have a part time job in the lab? You enjoy it so much, I know you could handle the math." Sakaki asked. Kaorin shrugged.
"If you turn your hobby into your career, you never have to work, but you do lose your hobby. I'd rather work with you, taking care of animals and keep my star gazing here at home. Besides, I'd be behind if I switched majors now." Kaorin sat across the table from Sakaki and tickled Maya's nose with a napkin before eating. Sakaki finished first and began doing the dishes, while Kaorin took care of the laundry. A few minutes later, they both collapsed on the sofa.
"What time do you plan to go to sleep tonight?"
"Nine I think. I've got to be at the lab at 3 and I want to get more sleep than last night. Even if it was totally worth it." Kaorin turned and laid her head on the taller girl's lap, smiling up at her. Sakaki grinned down at her, blushing happily as she stroked her lover's soft hair.
"Would you like to go out for a bit? See a movie, or maybe go ice skating?" The taller girl asked. Kaorin's eyes lit up.
"Yeah! We haven't gone out in weeks! Let me go get dressed a bit better and we can go right away!"
Sakaki smiled as the girl ran into the other room. It was nearly the end of their first semester at college, and they already had a comfortable life. Sakaki would go to work immediately after class, coming home at various hours of the evening, while Kaorin would get up and go to work before class. They always slept while the other was at work and for a while together, but spent as much of their overlapping free time together as possible.
They were both still studying to go into a medical field with animals, but they had tossed around various ideas. Kaorin loved being in a lab with scientific equipment that she could trust to give her perfect results, while Sakaki loved being outside or in a more personal setting, where she could feel closer to any animal she was working with at the time.
They'd considered zoos, vets, and even research. But they still had three and a half years, so they were in no hurry. Sakaki sat Maya down on the floor, where he immediately ran to his water bowl. She laughed as he dipped his head quickly and splashed his nose, jerking back suddenly from the water.
Kaorin and Sakaki had decided, since they were going to be living together, that it would be best to wait to make their relationship public. Kaorin's mother already knew the situation, but Sakaki's parents were oblivious to their daughter's affections.
There was one thing that bothered them about their relationship. They had not realized until after she had already departed for America that Chiyo had been the mastermind of the relationships forged on their last trip together. They had found out about Nyamo and Yukari's rekindled love the very next morning. Yukari was far from a subtle person. Yomi and Tomo managed not to give it away completely for several weeks, although somehow Chiyo seemed confident in her complete success at the time of her departure.
The bespectacled girl and her childhood friend had been late to breakfast, despite evidence showing they had both been wide awake for quite some time, so naturally, there were a few rumors. Some as ridiculous as alien abduction (Osaka), some as blatantly inappropriate as morning sex (Kagura), and some close to the mark like a heart to heart discussion about truth or dare (Kaorin).
But no one knew for certain until the start of classes when the pair had met up with Sakaki and Kaorin to deliver pictures and compare classes. When Kaorin arrived holding Sakaki's hand, Tomo immediately turned to her taller friend.
"See? I told you we weren't the only ones!" Tomo then grabbed Yomi's hand and dragged her to meet their old class mates.
However, the real problem with their late realization was that they couldn't thank the prodigy properly until the following summer. Sakaki wanted to call her and thank her immediately, but Kaorin wanted to wait and thank her in person. When Yomi agreed with Kaorin, the two decided it was probably the right choice.
So now they were enjoying the start of their lives together while they waited to express their gratitude to the young girl who had given them the nudge they needed to come together.
"Yomi!" Tomo sprinted down the sidewalk and leaped onto her girlfriend's back, nearly toppling her.
"Tomo you moron, get off! You could have knocked me into traffic or something!" Yomi glared over her shoulder at the hyper girl's grinning face and sighed.
"Oh come on Yomi! You carry yourself around all the time, so adding little old me can't be that bad!"
Yomi growled and started stumbling around dangerously, making Tomo leap off her in fear of falling. Yomi then smacked her over the head.
"Why do you have to make jokes about my weight?" Yomi asked.
"Cause its the one thing that you are stupid about and I've got to take advantage of knowing something you don't while it lasts cause it doesn't happen much." Tomo said happily. Yomi was surprised by the answer and waited for Tomo to explain further. No explanation came.
"Could you tell me what it is that you know that I don't?"
"If I told you, then you would know!" Tomo stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Yeah, but then I might help you with your homework." Yomi grinned as she held her one great trump card over the shorter girl's head. Tomo scowled and stuck out her tongue.
"Threatening to withhold help from your girlfriend isn't nice Yomi!" Tomo pulled a small notebook out of her jacket pocket and flipped to a page. She had taken to writing her assignments down so that she might remember to do some of them. It had worked... Some. Yomi now had a list of what to pester her about. "And I have math tonight! Fine. I'll tell you. But I want ice cream first!"
"Fine!" Yomi sighed again and began walking toward their favorite ice cream place. As usual, Tomo got the largest, sweetest, unhealthiest thing she could, while Yomi got a small milkshake. Tomo devoured her frozen treat in moments and smiled happily at Yomi.
"Alright. You're an idiot about your weight. Just because you weigh more than the average Japanese woman your age does not mean you are over weight and it definitely doesn't mean you are fat! You are taller, more muscular, and have bigger boobs than the average Japanese woman your age, or any age for that matter, so you really should think about what is healthy, not what will help you lose weight. It really worries me when you try some of these diets and it really makes me mad when you actually believe that you aren't the most beautiful woman I've ever met!"
Yomi stared at her for a moment, before smiling slowly and trying not to tear up.
"Tomo... that was really sweet in a really uniquely obnoxious Tomo way... Thanks." She hugged the shorter girl tightly, then took her hand. "I'll cook tonight. Maybe mapo tofu with rice. Forget the stupid grainless diet." Tomo grinned from ear to ear and stretched up to kiss the girl's cheek.
"There, now I'll probably never know something you don't again. So will you help me with my homework?" Tomo said. Yomi sighed and nodded reluctantly. She knew that it wasn't as bad as high school. Tomo was in a lot of classes that held interest to her now, so she put actual effort into them, but she still came to Yomi for help whenever she had difficulties. Yomi didn't really mind.
"You do know I have homework of my own, don't you?" Yomi said. Tomo laughed.
"You probably finished half of it before you left school!" Tomo grinned when she saw the small blush that meant she was right.
"What else am I supposed to do between classes?" Yomi questioned the triumphant looking girl beside her.
"Paper air planes!"
"Oh no, tell me you didn't..."
"Didn't what?"
"Never mind, I don't want to know."
"So you weren't blowing all your money on alcohol and video games?"
"Nope."
"You seriously saved all of it?"
"Yup."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Cause I wanted it to be a surprise, and I wasn't sure if I was really going to go through with this or not until today."
"You really amaze me sometimes, you know that Yukari?"
"I try, my dear Nyamo."
"Lets go in."
"About damn time!"
The wavy haired woman dashed up to the door and fit the key in the lock as if she had done it a million times, opening the door and darting inside, turning to face the entrance and the woman who was following her.
"It's fully furnished too?! This is... amazing."
"Yeah, I'm pretty good at this, right?" Yukari grinned with pride.
"I've gotta say, you really came through on this one." Nyamo looked around the room and began wondering into the other rooms. There were two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a laundry room, and a bathroom. She smiled at her partner and sat on the sofa.
"You like it?" Yukari collapsed next to her and looked at her for confirmation. She received a kiss and a laugh.
"Yes, I love it. We can move in this weekend?" Nyamo asked. Yukari nodded.
"Yup! This place officially belongs to us! All contents are ours, and we can move our things in at any time. I would have already had my stuff in, but I wanted to make sure this was okay with you first."
"Why wouldn't it have been okay with me?"
"Well... I sorta kept track of how much you've spent on me, roughly, since we met. And... Well if I counted that as half, we could have gotten a lot bigger place, but I thought this one would be better. It would be weird having that much unused room. And I wanted a car." Yukari admitted. Nyamo couldn't help but laugh. Over the years she had actually bought half a house worth of things for her best friend?
"It's perfect, Yukari. And you need a car, so I can stop driving you everywhere."
"You know you'd miss our morning conversations."
"You sleep for the entire five minute ride every morning."
"Yes, but I do think about you while I'm sleeping, so it is sort of like having a conversation, only neither of us really talk."
"Why do you want a car if you aren't going to drive to school?"
"So I'm not stuck here when you are at swim practice during the summer."
"You come with me most of the time. And the rest of the time, you're still asleep when I get back."
"That's beside the point. I need to be able to go places if I ever have to." Yukari was grinning like an idiot. Nyamo shook her head and smiled.
"I give up. Just try not to crash it? I know that your mother only put half those dents and scratches in her car, no matter what stories you feed her."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll take good care of it. Jeez, I haven't said that since I asked my parents if I could get a puppy." Yukari pulled her legs up and leaned fully against Nyamo, kissing her shoulder and then her neck.
"Yukari, is there a bed in that room yet?" Nyamo asked, leaning into the contact and smiling.
"Oh you dirty girl. Yes. Come on."
Special thanks to Demented Noodles, James Birdsong, Enis, and DeadlyThunder195 for your much appreciated reviews!
First, addressing Sakaki's talking too much. I'm sorry :( I do know it is a problem, but I'm not so great at writing for her, and I wanted it to come across more as her being more open to Kaorin. I actually prefer Kaorin with Chihiro, but I wanted to give this pair a try once.
Second, Chiyo has so much potential for awesomeness that I can't even begin to imagine all the things I can do with her. I'm considering something similar to Azumanga Daioh Plus Six, which if you haven't read it, you should! Along with Warmth and Cold Nights, together make up three of my favorite AD fics.
Yomi x Tomo are my favorite pair (Yomi is my favorite character), but I am better at writing for Nyamo x Yukari I think, so I am sorry, but I will probably focus on them more, unless I get good ideas for the younger two.
Fourthly, or whatever number I am on, I have two other AD fics in the works, but I have a lot of trouble writing for this fandom, and I am not sure why. It may be a while.
Thank you for reading! Please review!