Chapter 4

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the cliffhanger before guys... I know it was evil but if I do say so it was quite well placed. Onwards to what I meant to put here. This chapter also introduces a new character and gives another more "screen time."

Quick Recap: As dinner in the Hiragi household began they sat in wait for Kagami's "boyfriend when "he" arrived they were in for a shock. "Come on in!" and I began to pull her forward towards the dining room and she, realizing that she had no choice, began to walk with me. "Everyone," I began before I got within sight, "I would like to introduce," we round the corner, "Konata Izumi, My girlfriend."

Inori who almost always had some retort for anything I did remained speechless, Matsuri who had been slyly sneaking bites of food no longer fished for more food, Tsukasa's face was one of confusion as the pieces had yet to fit together in her mind, and worst of all was my father's stoic facial expression that showed no signs of disgust or understanding. It seemed like time had stopped and I had been trapped forever to be tormented by my families gaze. Suddenly a burst of laughter came from Matsuri. She looks at Inori and says "You owe me one thousand yen*!" Slowly things began to settle with my sisters.

"I told you she didn't have a boyfriend!" "This counts you meant it as in she was lying about being with someone!" they continued bickering back in forth when all the sudden Tsukasa eyes widen and she lets out a loud "eh?" Soon followed by "Wait what?" She had finally understood what had been said and was now trying to decide what to say before lunging out of her seat and awkwardly hugging us, the newly publicized couple, due to height differences among the three. "Congratulations!" She shouted into the ears of both of us causing us to wince a little. "I thought you disliked Kona-chan though?" She asked with all sincerity. "Apparently I'm a..." I started. "Tsundere" Konata finished for me causing a large blush to spread across my face but this time I didn't deny it cause... 'It's the truth.'

POV Miki

While Tsukasa continued the group hug, and Matsuri and Inori continued debating who owed who what, I was smiling at how accepting my daughters were even though they were a bit rude, betting on their own sister's relationship! Although I know about how they reacted I am still worried about the person sitting next to me who had yet to say a word or even change his facial expression. I know he is very understanding, generally, but this was something I had never expected not that it was wrong it just hadn't crossed my mind. Even though I had found out before hand and actually had time to contemplate the thought Tadao did not have any such time and was thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire before he knew he was in a frying pan. It was quite obvious that while Kagami is happy about being accepted by her sisters that she is still nerve wrecked about the one other person who had yet to respond. Tsukasa quickly hustled the two girls to their seats at the table.

POV Kagami

We sat at the table which quickly adopted the same silence that remained on my dad. We wait for him to say thanks and start the meal*. We sat in wait for minutes driving the oh so hungry Matsuri to reach for some food to have her plans thwarted by a quick smack from Inori. We still sat in complete silence as the food slowly cooled the exact opposite of almost everyone else's nerves. More time passed as he remained silent the clock's ticking sounding like a jackhammer in an empty room slowly counting out the seconds that everyone silently sat in front of the food. Seconds turned to a minute, one minute to two, two to five. I sat just as quiet as the rest of the group and somehow even Konata had remained silent though we were holding hands under the table to give each other comfort. My thoughts were taking a dangerous turn for the worse, he was disgusted and just was so in shock that he couldn't speak. I could feel my hand slowly tightening around Konata's as I started nearing my limit trying not to snap at the man who had raised me and given me a home. At last he stood "Miss. Izumi and Kagami could I speak to you in private for a moment." It was not a question but a demand and we both rose and followed him into the kitchen and closed the door behind them. As for privacy she could already hear her mom shouting at her older sisters to get away from the door but soon heard a third then forth head bang up against the wall.

Her father then brings her back to the situation by turning to Konata "Do you really love my daughter?" He asks in the same expressionless voice his face showed.

Rather then her usual jokes Konata is obviously scared as she responds "Yes, sir!"

He then turns to me and without a face change asks "And you feel the same?"

"I do love her. I have probably been in love with her since I met her. I just couldn't accept my feelings for her until recently..." I trailed off hoping I got my point across when I felt a light squeeze on my hand forcing me to look up to see the face my father was now giving was not expressionless and was one I did not accept to see. He was tearing up? Was he sad?

"I'm sorry..." Oh here it comes he is going to say he dislikes it. "It's just honestly I thought Kagami would push everyone away from her so I was shocked to see that she really did love someone." Konata reaches into her pocket and hands him her favorite Haruhi* handkerchief to my father who is at this point crying his eyes out. I start to imagine that my parent's accept my relationship only to drown to death in my father's tears because he didn't think I would ever find someone to love me... Wait...

"YOU THOUGHT I WOULD BE ALONE MY WHOLE LIFE!?" followed by a nod from my father further burrowing the daggers... no spears now stabbed through me. "I'm... not sure if i am happy or not... My own father doubted my love life... but accepted my girlfriend..." I turn to face Konata who was doing her best to suppress her laughter but I could hear my older sisters laughing without restraint in the other room. She pulls me towards her and slowly stands as high as she could and kisses me giving a show for the four spying on us from the dining room. She slowly pulls away just to add to effect and before she backs away I yank her back and continue the kiss, my emotions finally boiling over followed by a few hoots, hollers, and whistles from the dining room.

After a little bit Inori steps in and pulls us apart "No bragging you two." obviously jealous that her younger sister had found someone before she had. Followed by Matsuri's stomach rumbling cluing us in on the fact we hadn't had dinner yet. We turn to face dad who had luckily not seen the intimate moment Konata and i had just shared right in front of him, due to the fact he was wiping away tears from his eyes, making my face go red at the thought of him seeing us. It took a little for him to calm down from his shocked happy state and myself forgiving his alone comment since he accepted Konata and I's love. Only a few dinners have ever tasted so good as the dinner I had that night.

Meanwhile at the Izumi Household (POV Minami)

"Hey Iwasaki-san!" My energetic friend said as she answered the door to let me in.

"Hi... Kobayakawa-san..." I trail off.

"How many times do I have to tell you! Call me Yutaka!" She begins to pout. "I'm not going to let you in until you greet me with my name not my family name."

"Ah... um... Y-" I try to say it but I have to quickly hide my face because the blush creeping up on my face. "Hi... Yu- Yutaka...," her eyes start to shine at the sound of her name, "-san..." I finished and her eyes losing a little of the shine but none the less was still very happy.

She steps to the side and lets me into the house and we both end up in her room, it is the first time I have been in there when she is well. Contrary to what you believe is not as girlie* as it would seem. The rooms aren't pink but a beige color with very little personal items sprawled about. She isn't the messiest person but by no means is she tidy. One of the few personal items in her room is a picture of her and I that we took soon after becoming friends.

"Come on Iwasaki-san!" She said as she pulled me along giving me no say in the matter. Not that I didn't want to do it I just didn't know how to react in this situation which in turn made it look like I didn't want to do it. 'Gah! Why can't I just say and do what I want! Why do I have to be so shy!' I thought to myself knowing I would never be able to say that aloud. "We're almost there!" pierced through my thoughts as we neared the arcade, a place I had only looked at from afar because only people with friends went there. All this while I still kept my stoic expression instead of showing my embarrassment at this situation. I may have been embarrassed but for some reason whenever I looked at her smiling face I seemed to calm down and would almost don a smile myself. I didn't understand why at that time but I do now.

Shortly after that day I couldn't get her out of my mind and no matter how many books I tried to read I could not focus and Cherry was not in the mood to play forcing me to try to understand why she was always on my mind. It didn't take long as one of the books I had attempted to read gave me the answer. The main character felt the same way I did around this one guy and then she realized the reason was because she was in love with him. The way I felt mirrored everything she felt except for the fact that the person I fell in love with was my best friend... and a logical as my evidence was I still didn't want to believe that I was in love with my best friend, she was a girl but that didn't seem to bother me as much as I originally thought it would. I was more upset at how I was taking advantage of the trust of the first person to open up to me besides my parents. I started forcing myself to think 'I just want to protect her' thats all. I still got embarrassed at times but I had been able to calm that reaction over a bit of time. Now here I am alone with her in her house... Wait normally at least Izumi-sempai is here.

"Um... Izumi-sempai's... not here?" I thought aloud.

"No Onee-san is over at Kagami-sempai's house... OH YEAH! I forgot to tell you..." She leans in really close which causes me to blush ever so slightly. "Apparently she is going out with Kagami-sempai! You can't tell anyone especially not Hiyori-san!"

'Izumi-sempai and Hiiragi-sempai... going out...' "Like... going out... as in couple...?" By this time a blush has crept onto my face but it appears that I am not alone in the situation as Yutaka-san also appears to have a blush across her face.

"Mhmm!" She vigorously nods her head up and down and it looked like it was going to just snap off at any moment. "What do you think about that?" She finally stopped bobbing her head while tossing the question out there.

'Eh?!' "Um... I guess... if they... like each other... then it should be... fine..." I stammer out all the while trying to control my reaction unsure how she would react.

"Ithinkit'sgreatandallthattheyloveeachothersomucht hattheydon'tcareaboutgender! (I think it's great and all that they love each other so much that they don't care about gender)" She stated so quickly it became garbled yet somehow I caught the gist of what she said. I am used to her getting extremely exited and doing this after all.

'huh?' "Your face is really red... do you have a fever?" I raise my hand to her forehead and wow it is burning up. "... If you weren't... feeling well you... should have... told me." I stand up and grab some ice, water, and fever medicine. As I came back Yutaka-san was on her phone smiling when she looked up and saw me then showed me the message on her phone.

"OMG Kagami's family accepted us! I won't be home tonight. Can you tell dad?"

"Good... for them..." 'I really am happy for them... but it is a little depressing still... I wonder if Yutaka and I could be like that one day...' I let out a mental sigh. 'Right now as long as I can be by her side and protect her I'm happy.' We ended up chatting for awhile before Yutaka fell asleep and after setting up the futon I joined her in a land of dreams.

Key:

1,000 Yen ~= $10

Traditionally the man of the house starts the thanks and then they begin to eat

If you don't know this reference please do vacate the premise

Believe it or not that is how you actually spell girlie. Don't believe me look it up. (Most spell it Girly for those who don't know or so it seems to me)

Author's Notes:

So now you know another of the characters that is a lesbian! Not sure how I did with those two's personalities. I had trouble writing an airhead (Tsukasa) and now I am writing an extremely shy girl (Minami) and an energetic yet naive girl (Yutaka). Please do tell me if you feel their personalities are off a little as I am trying to get them as close to the personalities everyone loves. Also thank you for the reviews I have been PMing each of the reviewers but I haven't gotten a single response back :( So you people check your Inbox! My thanks goes to Nate939 (Just asking what parts need to be corrected), Curlehh (Thanks again for the second (Forth... lol) review!), Erin (I don't plan to stop till I drop!... or run out of ideas... or actually conclude it... yeah...), Gigarot (3rd review Thanks! Also In a pm I kinda explained that it was meant to be a mental battle on Kagami's part rather then an actual one. Glad you liked the cliffhanger! (I hated myself for writing it but I was pushing the length on that chapter)), and last Konami Izumi (Nice name and obviously you read an english fanfic so you either cheated (Google translate) or you know english :D and too bad I wrote their reactions anyways!) Thanks again everyone! I probably won't write to much tomorrow (It is my birthday after all!) and enjoy this chapter (Hopefully!)!