The Harem Route

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Chapter 7: Kagami's Cold

---(Konata POV)

"Kagami!" one second she'd been brushing off their worries with that cute annoyed face that she always wore when they were being a little extra clingy, the next, she'd been falling.

They'd caught her at the same time, both panicking on what to do next. Misao had looked as if she would've – without any hesitation – stolen a car if she'd come to the conclusion that it would somehow help, Konata was seriously considering it.

Then something weird happened.

Misao – still making sure that Kagami was safe from immediate harm whilst doing so – seemed to almost collapse, looking like a small child about to cry. The scene somehow managed to make all of the small otaku's panic drain away, and only now did she remember that they weren't really all that far away from Kagami's house. If we can only get her there.

"Misao," the fanged girl looked up, eyes still on the verge of crying, "can you carry her?"

There was a confused pause where Misao tried to make sense of the words, and then she nodded. Konata helped her to get Kagami onto her back, and then they began walking – Konata doing her best to keep on talking since it seemed to keep Misao from panicking.

It didn't take long for them to arrive at the house, but it still felt as if hours must've passed, and when the door finally opened to reveal Kagami's mother she ushered them inside, telling them to get her into bed.

This was followed by many different activities running parallel with each other, Misao carried the fever stricken girl upstairs, while the rest of them went about doing various other tasks that you do when you realize that a person has a fever – there was for example an abundant amount of moving towels involved.

Then there was nothing. The Hiiragi's returned to whatever they were doing prior to their arrival, except for Kagami's mother, who asked for a somewhat more detailed explanation of the events leading up to her daughter fainting. Konata tried her best to explain it to her, but she was starting to feel really tired.

As she was finally able to finish with her story, both Misao and her received what appeared to be heartfelt thanks, and as she retreated downstairs somewhere, Konata more or less collapsed in the corridor outside of Kagami's room.

"Konata," the voice sounded about as tired as Konata felt.

"Hmm?" looking up at Misao who'd sat down next to her – she was never going to grow any taller, she supposed that she should just accept it and move on.

"Thanks," Konata blinked at her in confusion, and the fanged girl hurried to explain, "If you hadn't been there, I don't think I'd have been able to carry her here."

The small otaku looked at her for a moment before a tired smile slowly crept over her lips.

"Thanks for carrying her. I might be fast, but I don't think I'd be able to carry someone around so easily."

The two of them sat there in the silence on the floor of the hall, both too exhausted, relieved, and worried to think of anything to talk about.

Konata wasn't sure if one of them had done it consciously, but somehow, as she closed her eyes and darkness swallowed her consciousness, she was strangely comforted to have a shoulder to lean on – even if that shoulder happened to belong to her rival in love.

---(Kagami POV)

It's too hot… The first thing that she saw as she slowly opened her eyes was a very familiar ceiling. My room…? How did I get here?

There was the muted noise of voices coming from somewhere outside the door, she recognized one of them as that of her mother, but two of them seemed a little hard to figure out, until she suddenly realized that it was the voices of Konata and Misao.

What are they doing here? It was first now that Kagami was able to remember how her vision had suddenly turned black. Ah, did they carry me home after I fainted? … that's kind of embarrassing, but… I'm a little happy…

---(Konata POV)

When she next opened her eyes, Konata realized that someone had wrapped a blanket around the two of them – probably worried that they, too, might catch a cold. It was a somewhat strange feeling to wake up sitting under a blanket next to another person – waking up sitting was normal for the small otaku – but it wasn't really a bad feeling.

It took Konata an unsettling amount of time before she was finally able to get annoyed at the girl next to her – this despite that said girl had been drooling on her shoulder. I guess this shows that I'm starting to get along with her better? She wasn't quite sure of what to make of that.

The reason that she was finally able to summon some semblance of annoyance towards Misao, was how difficult it proved to be for her to unwrap the blanket around them. Gah! How is it possible for a person to move so much in their sleep!?

Her question was answered as she finally managed to loosen the blanket, only to receive a knee to the stomach from the still sleeping girl. How the hell did she manage that!? Is that even physically possible!?

She decided to cut her losses, and – instead of trying to wake the girl – scampered out of the blanket, crawling over to the other side of the small corridor for some kind of protection against the fanged girl's unpredictable movements.

Quickly coming to the conclusion that staying seated on the floor would be very uncomfortable, Konata began moving downstairs, detachedly wondering what time it was as she did so.

"Ah, Kona-chan," Tsukasa looked up from whatever it was that she was doing, as the small otaku entered the kitchen.

Konata looked at the air headed girl and then at the clock on the wall… Konata looked at Tsukasa, and then at the clock on the wall.

Huh? Isn't it getting pretty late? Konata had never seen the youngest of the Hiiragi siblings as someone capable of staying coherent this late into the night. Admittedly, she hadn't seen her as someone capable of staying coherent for very long at all – especially if you waved something sparkly in front of her face.

"What are you making?" deciding not to mention it, the small otaku focused instead on what Tsukasa was busy making.

---(Kagami POV)

Thirsty… The need to drink was starting to get on Kagami's nerves, and finally she struggled out of the bed – it wasn't that much of a struggle, with the exception of how the world seemed to have a tendency to spin whenever she moved too fast.

Walking proved to be a little difficult, but as long as she held onto something – walls, door handles, furniture and the like – it wasn't all that hard, she still had to be careful of where she put her feet though.

It took a little time to get used to, but she'd learned how to make it work relatively well by the time she arrived at her door. The next challenge was opening said door. Maybe I shouldn't wander around like this if it's to the point where I classify opening a door as a challenge? But I'm so thirsty…

It wasn't as hard to open the door as she'd originally assumed, although it did send her stumbling into the corridor where she was able to avoid falling, only due to the helpfulness of the wall that she stumbled into. This is such a nice wall… Kagami thought fondly to herself. We really should try to be nicer to it… It took the strict girl a moment to realize that that didn't make any sense whatsoever. Wow… this is pretty bad…

"Hgrphmr!" the strange snore-like hiccup noise startled Kagami a little.

Ah, Misao… The fanged girl was sitting on the floor – or maybe she was lying down – a short distance away, a blanket seemed to have been draped loosely over one of her legs. That looks kind of hilarious… Kagami could feel a smile tugging at her lips.

She wasn't exactly sure how she noticed the sleeping girl's slight shivering so easily, but once she did, she couldn't just leave her be. What if she caught a cold or something?

Slowly kneeling down next to her, Kagami did her best to tuck her in.

Getting back up proved to be a lot harder than sitting down, and Kagami might very well have spent several minutes trying to ease herself back up to her feet.

Thirsty… Remembering her mission, the feverish girl began moving towards the stairs – the fact that she didn't go to the bathroom on the same floor and began to move towards the kitchen downstairs, didn't speak well for her mental capacity at this point in time.

Descending the stairs was… well it did make one of the more sensible parts of her brain wonder how she was going to get back up, but it was quickly drowned out.

She felt herself crack an odd smile when she finally found an actual floor beneath her feet. Hah! I defeated the mighty stairs! I'm invincible! Muahaha! If she hadn't been so busy quietly mocking the stairs in her head, she would've probably begun to wonder how bad her fever really was.

Her moment of triumph, however, passed quickly. She still needed something to drink, and so her quest towards the kitchen continued.

"Kona-chan, could you…?"

That's strange… Voices? I'd have guessed that it's pretty late, I wonder who it might be…? Feeling strangely hesitant all of a sudden, Kagami slowly peeked around the doorway to the kitchen. Tsukasa…? Why is she…? There was a limit to the strangeness the feverish girl could handle, so she decided to ignore the lively presence of her little sister in the middle of the night.

"I've got it," the small otaku had begun to chop something – Kagami couldn't see what it was from over here.

It was strange to watch the two of them cook together – even if you ignored that Tsukasa would normally be in a coma at this time of day – it somehow reminded her of clockwork. It seemed like both knew what they and the other were doing, should be doing, and had already done, by pure instinct. There wasn't much talk, only a lot of efficient-looking movement.

It was amazing to watch, and yet it made Kagami feel a little… uncomfortable? Watching the two of them work so well with each other, for some reason she suddenly wished that she had had the skills needed to be able to join them without getting in the way. It was a lonely feeling.

Thirsty… The reason for her long journey finally reminded itself, breaking Kagami out of her stupor as it did so.

She wasn't aware that she'd entered the kitchen until Konata turned around and jumped slightly at the sight of her.

"Kagami? What are you doing out of bed? You have a fever, right?" she sounded genuinely worried about her.

"Thirsty," her voice cracked a little as she finally voiced the reason.

Her statement was followed by activity, Kagami couldn't really keep track of it all since part of it seemed to involve steps needed to make sandwiches rather than drinks – it was confusing. But finally she was presented with a glass filled with some kind of liquid, she was thirsty, that it was in liquid form was all that mattered for the moment.

After contemplating how nice it was to sit down – Konata had somehow managed to force her into a chair at some point – she raised the glass to her lips and felt a wonderful sensation filling her completely as it quenched her thirst.

She would've liked to ask what it was that she'd just drank, but everything was starting to go dark and heavy, it wasn't all that bad actually, having that warmth gently petting her head until she was once more swallowed by the darkness of sleep.

---(Konata POV)

Kagami's sleeping face is as adorable as ever… Konata smiled at the familiar thought, watching the tsundere nuzzling into her shoulder. And, although I can't go back on what I said earlier to Misao, she isn't nearly as heavy as she seems to think…

Climbing the stairs with the feverish girl cradled in her arms, however, had proven to be somewhat… ungainly. Curse this height of mine!

She'd finished helping Tsukasa not long after Kagami had arrived in the kitchen, and after a few half-hearted attempts at waking her – that was one of the problems with this girl, she was just too cute when she was sleeping, there should probably be some sort of law against such random cuteness – Konata had decided to carry her back to her room.

It wasn't that she was having second thoughts about it, being able to be this close to Kagami wasn't something she had any plans of regretting, for any reason, but she was beginning to realize that there really were down parts with carrying the bigger girl.

Thankfully, Kagami had forgotten to close the door to her room, so when the small otaku finally managed to get to the right floor, she was greeted by the happy notion of not having to struggle with a door whilst having both of her hands occupied.

As she began to tuck her in, a slight moaning sound slipped over the twin-tailed girl's lips. Konata froze, feeling a part of her struggle to pounce on the tsundere for making such an adorable noise, but most of her was resisting – a conscience can be such a dreadfully effective thing sometimes – and so she settled for gently brushing away a lock of her hair from the sleeping girl's face.

It felt as if she might've stood there staring at her beloved's sleeping face for several hours, but it was probably only for a few seconds, before she tore her eyes away, and slipped out the door, closing it quietly behind her.

It was first at this point that Konata begun to think of what to do next, and came to the conclusion that she had a choice to make. Wake someone up – Tsukasa had probably gone back to bed by now – and sleep on a futon or something, or grab the blanket Misao was now hogging and hoping that the fanged girl would be usable as a pillow-substitute.

"Move over," it wasn't all that hard to slip back under the blanket and wrap it snuggly around the both of them, although it was a little painful, since Misao rammed an elbow into her stomach at one time.

---(Hiyori POV)(Potential Chapter Break)

"Eh? Izumi-senpai didn't come home last night?"

"Apparently Hiiragi-senpai collapsed on their way home from school, so they ended up staying over."

"They? Ah, I guess Kusakabe-senpai must've been there as well," Hiyori fought off her dream-mode and began to honestly wonder whether or not she should tell her confused-looking friends why she'd made that assumption… she settled for something that could be interpreted in many ways, "Well, those three hang around a lot nowadays, right?"

"Umm, I guess that's true…" Yutaka trailed off, looking still somewhat confused about… well most things.

Minami seemed to be deep in thought for some reason, Hiyori never really could tell what went through that girl's head – it was probably mutual. And Patricia seemed to be considering entering some kind of dream-mode herself. I guess birds of a feather do flock together… Did I say that right? It feels like it should make more sense than that… shouldn't it be the other way around? That feathers of a bird flock together, but are feather actually capable of flocking?

Gah! Now my brain hurts! At least my usually fantasy mode isn't actually painful… I guess we should just stick to what we do best, huh?

This however, proved to be something of a lousy idea… the nosebleed she acquired from imagining what fun things her three senpais could've been doing in the middle of the night – she was pretty sure most of those wouldn't be possible due to one of the threesome's members would probably be semi-conscious throughout the entire affair – was enough for her to actually be sent to the nurses office.

Maybe I should just quit thinking things like that before something really bad happens…

---(Kagami POV)

Ufphm… Such sounded Kagami's first thought that made sense in the last few hours. Most of these hours were spent asleep, floating in the empty blackness of oblivion, the other parts were divided between, crazy hallucination – the dream of Misao and Konata giving her a lap-dance was something she was firmly repressing as deep into her subconscious as was humanly possible – and strange thoughts that really didn't make any sense – she was still trying to figure out why someone would want an electric toothbrush that could be fused together with a hairdryer into some weird mecha on a mission to defeat, both bad breath and bed hair.

The mecha thing had sounded so sensible at the time, she'd even begun to think of some kind of marketing campaign for it when she'd fallen asleep again. Konata must be rubbing off on me… And here comes the lap-dance-dream again… I need to take better care of my health from now on, these things are going to be hell to forget.

Groaning a little, Kagami finally sat up. The room looked very much as it had the previous morning, so she correctly guessed that her two suitors had somehow come to the conclusion that a sick person actually needed their sleep, though she was guessing that it was probably her mother forcing them into realizing it. Heh, I guess she seems to fit pretty well into the cliché mother-in-law…

Another groan escaped from Kagami's throat, this one sounded louder, and much more frustrated than it's predecessor. Why do I keep thinking things like that!?

As she was sitting there, trying very hard not to think of anything involving some of the things that she was labeling as taboo from now on – Misao and/or Konata rubbing off on her, any thoughts remotely related to marriage, and, finally, analyzing the reason for tabooing any of the previously mentioned – Kagami realized something that awoke her curiosity.

Today was a school day. I wonder if those two got there on time? This thought made the strict girl a little confused. I hope that they got there in time… but I feel a little lonely when I think that they're already gone…

Decisively repressing a third groan – there was a limit to groaning, even if the situation called for it – Kagami swung her legs over the edge of the bed. Getting out of the bed proved to be a lot easier than it'd been during the previous night. I guess the fever must've gone down.

She still felt a little unsteady as she made her way to the door, a door that opened easily and didn't slingshot her against the opposite wall of the hallway. Clearly an improvement. Kagami looked at the place on the floor where Misao had been located during the previous night.

She wasn't there.

Kagami stared at the spot dumbly for a moment, slowly noticing how a sad kind of feeling was creeping up on her. This proved to be enough of a shock to break her out of her reverie.

Why am I feeling sad all of a sudden!? Shouldn't I be happy that the two of them might've actually gotten to school on time? All of this confusion was proving slightly frustrating – Kagami blamed the fever.

---(Konata POV)

I wonder how it could've seemed like such a good idea at the time? Konata crawled out from under the blanket, pain echoing through pretty much every part of her body – she blamed the headache on one of Misao's limbs.

Although she had slept peacefully, waking up had proven to be a very painful experience. Sleeping is something that should be done on beds… not on floors. Konata grimaced as she stretched.

"Five more minutes…" muttered Misao in a sleepy voice.

How much does she sleep anyway? It's almost as if she could rival Tsukasa… The small otaku smiled as an evil plan formed in her head – it's a well known fact that evil plans are very amusing to the person doing the planning.

Konata crawled over to the still sleeping girl. Leaning in she could feel the fanged girl's breath on her face, it tickled, but she was expecting that much. Trying not to grin from ear to ear, because of how difficult it would be to do this, Konata blew a small trickle of air into the fanged girl's ear.

"Hughrphm?" the noise sounded like a mix between tickled laughter, surprise, and a sleepy moan.

Konata did it again.

"Fvmerph…!" a hand swatted at Konata – who had expected that reaction, and easily avoided any potential injuries.

Konata did it a third time.

"Muphyaa!" Misao's hand settled over her ear, preventing any further interference with it, as she finally opened her eyes.

"Good morning," Konata let the grin she'd been holding back spread across her face, and made a mental note to herself that teasing a sleeping Misao was surprisingly entertaining and as such should be done whenever an opportunity was given.

"… Konata…?" the confusion was apparent on the fanged girl's face and Konata decided to explain their current situation to her.

"Yesterday Kagami collapsed on her way home, we ended up staying over, and we slept in the hallway. I blame you for that last one," the small otaku watched as yesterday's events finally seemed to come back to the taller girl.

"Is Kagami…"

"Kagami is fine, it was just a fever, nothing serious…" Misao breathed a sigh of relief.

It was at this moment that Konata suddenly remembered something. We have school today… The realization of this, and what it meant for the two of them, was unpleasant to say the least – Konata didn't want to leave the feverish girl on her own, even if there would be others to look after her.

It was at this moment that she heard something very strange, she heard voices that seemed to be discussing something. It wasn't that discussing things were strange, but it seemed like the entire Hiiragi family was present and accounted for – well, except for the twins.

Konata got to her feet and began to move towards the voices, Misao didn't follow, being too preoccupied with trying to scratch her ear.

"… I still don't get it… it's just unsettling… something bad… happen," Konata couldn't hear every single word, but it seemed like the family was seriously worried about something.

"Maybe it'll blow over… couldn't actually keep this up, right?" having finally spotted them, Konata decided that eavesdropping – although an effective means of obtaining information – wouldn't be a good idea in this matter.

"Umm… excuse me, what are you talking about?"

"Ah…! Well that's…" Matsuri seemed to be searching for the right words to explain this, but she was interrupted.

"Breakfast is ready!" as Tsukasa's bright voice sailed through the corridor, resulting in a visible shiver running down the Hiiragi family's spine.

"Gah! No matter how I look at it, that's just not right!" Konata stared at them for a moment before she began to connect the dots.

Tsukasa was acting weird. Okay that wasn't entirely true, Tsukasa was acting really weird, and her family members were very unsettled by it.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami let out a sigh.

She had, for reasons unknown to her, checked the entire upper floor in search of anyone only to find that she was, indeed, alone. The realization was… not pleasant. I think I'd actually be happy even if it was one of those two… Kagami frowned a little, there should be some kind of limit to feeling lonely.

She was about to return to her bedroom, but for some reason she didn't want to lie down right now. So, instead of doing what people with a fever ought to do, and rest until she got better, Kagami continued to wander around the house aimlessly.

Huh? What was that noise? Kagami tried to put a finger on the direction where it'd come from. Downstairs…?

The feverish girl was the kind of person who wouldn't last very long in horror movies – her curiosity forced her to check whenever a sound was heard, when it was almost always better to run like hell and never look back. That said, it wasn't all that strange that her legs began to carry her towards the stairs.

---(Konata POV)

After having realized that going to school meant not only heaps of work that people expected her to do, but that there was no chance of being with Kagami either, Konata began to feel this distinct urge to crawl into a corner somewhere and hope nobody would notice her absence.

Unfortunately for the small otaku, this proved somewhat complicated since Misao was trying to get into the same corner.

Their conflict over the distant corner was the stuff of legends, the kind of tales that you could tell your grandchildren and they'd say "Grandma, your stories are beyond weird," needless to say, it was a complete and utter tactical failure.

The rest of the Hiiragi's were already there. Trying very hard not to fight, lest their movements be picked up by the Tsukasa that was acting so strange that they were almost expecting that something inside of her brain would snap and leave her with a distinct need of killing as many of her close family members as possible.

Konata could hardly blame them, Tsukasa was at the moment cheerfully getting ready for school, school that she had already finished all of her homework to. It was definitely unsettling, if nothing else.

Konata decided to have a ceasefire with the fanged girl, whom she was currently trying to suffocate by pinching her nose – since her mouth was too busy trying to chew through Konata's arm to remember breathing, it was actually a possible outcome – until a more appropriate corner presented itself.

"I'm leaving!" for some reason, knowing that such a cheerful morning voice came from someone who wasn't normally capable of waking up before noon was, although not quite as bad as it might've seemed – considering how the rest of her family were looking slightly faint – it was still pretty damn unnerving.

When the front door shut there was a visible sigh of relief coming from the unusually crowded corner, before the Hiiragi family crawled back up to their feet and took off towards whatever destination they had for the day.

Thankfully for Konata, since no-one of them seemed to have any inclination of staying in the house, they were quick to dump the responsibility of taking care of the feverish girl on the two who didn't seem to want to leave. Everyone was happy about these arrangements, although Misao still looked a little strange.

---

"So if you don't eat something early in the morning, you'll turn into some kind of chewing-zombie?" Konata was vaguely amused by this, Misao was not.

"You don't have to say it like that you know…" she seemed a bit embarrassed about having attempted to chew through the furniture.

Konata had begun to cook a second breakfast – the Hiiragi family might be scared half to death because of Tsukasa's behavior, but apparently that didn't affect their appetite in any way – and did her best to cook something for Kagami while she was at it.

It wasn't all that hard to cook, but it was a little more difficult to keep Misao from eating the ingredients. This proved, in fact, to be one of the most tiring tasks she'd ever faced, so in the end she simply located a loaf of bread and crammed it down the fanged girl's throat.

Strange as it might've seemed, this was actually met with a positive feedback from the girl that should probably have been choked to death by now, considering the way that she seemed to devour the entire thing without actually chewing.

---(Kagami POV)

The stairs weren't all that hard to navigate, Kagami only had to keep track of exactly where she was putting her feet, which wasn't really something difficult, just kind of annoying.

There're definitely voices… The feverish girl stopped and listened at the bottom of the stairs. The kitchen? Finding it the most probable location, Kagami began to walk that way, making sure that she didn't trip over her feet whilst doing so.

She opened the door to the kitchen slightly, revealing the strange two girls who seemed to be cooking something – well Konata was, Misao looked a lot like a hungry puppy trying to remind its owner that it was very hungry and would appreciate anything edible being thrown its way.

It was an odd sight. Not unpleasant, just… odd.

Kagami ignored the weirdness of that statement, and entered the kitchen. They were annoying, embarrassing, and unsettlingly perverted. But, for the moment at least, she didn't mind the thought of spending the day together with the two of them. The twin-tailed girl blamed it on the fever.

---(Hiyori POV)

When Hiyori finally returned to the classroom, it was already lunch time. Quickly locating her friends – it wasn't all that hard sine Patricia was waving with the kind of passion that made normal people worry about having their arm falling off – the fujoshi made her way towards them.

"Hiyorin!" the girl was almost knocked off her feet as the blonde-haired, pillow-carrier crashed into her. It wasn't much of a bad feeling, but it was definitely embarrassing, as well as being somewhat inconvenient and dangerous.

"Patty-chan…!?" trying to draw breath after the happy tackle was also proving a little difficult. Still, these pillows sure are soft… The thought caused Hiyori to flinch. I did it again! Damn it, what's wrong with me lately!?

It wasn't that she was surprised about thinking about her energetic friends very distinct curves, it was more that she was surprised about herself being so forward. I'm an observer, so when did I start to get drawn into the middle of things!? Not that she particularly minded, the pillows were very soft indeed.

She shook that last feeling as Patricia seemed to realize that hugging a person that's gasping desperately for air isn't the ideal position, and let go of her.

It was an ordinary lunch break, although Yutaka did ask for some kind of explanation as to how she'd ended up with such a nosebleed – Patricia saved what little was still left of Hiyori's conscience by helping her divert the subject.

---(Konata POV)

Apparently, Kagami had regained her appetite. Konata had to admit that it would've worried her greatly if the food-centered tsundere she'd come to know and love, would've told her that she wasn't hungry, and actually meant it.

She still wasn't really able to rival Misao, who seemed to be a living proof that there was such a thing as black holes, and that a smaller version of one were situated in her stomach.

It was an odd breakfast.

The small otaku had had many strange meals over the years – they'd been enjoyable, but if anyone asked, she was going to blame her dad – but eating breakfast with the girl you love, who is acting uncharacteristically docile, and someone who's capable of swallowing an entire loaf of bread in a matter of seconds, would be difficult to top.

Although Konata did attempt to flirt at least a little bit with her tsundere – she couldn't help herself, she was just so cute – they proved to be ineffective. Partly because Misao blocked some of them by spraying – whatever she'd been eating at the time – all across the table, and partly because Kagami was proving unable to follow the conversation properly – which basically meant that she smiled a sleepy, vulnerably, polite smile, and hoped for the best.

As such, it could hardly be called a bad way to have breakfast – it'd even been kind of fun to see Misao choke whenever Konata had made an unusually, daring move – in fact it was easily ranked within her top three breakfasts ever – one of the others being purely fictional, and involving a lot of innuendos.

In a way, this made Konata feel a little unsettled, she was growing to befriend her rival in love ever more, and that might very well lead to feelings of guilt when she broke the fanged girl's heart by stealing Kagami away from her. But, she concluded that since she still needed her help to keep others away from the twin-tailed girl, and so there was no immediate need to worry.

Konata easily lost track of time, and when she finally began to gather the dishes – Kagami was still feverish, so she didn't want her to strain herself, and she wouldn't trust Misao with anything even remotely fragile – she realized that it was already time for lunch.

Since all of them had spent the last few hours eating, the small otaku decided that she probably didn't need to cook anything despite this – and if Misao said otherwise she'd cram another one of those loafs down her throat.

After a small discussion of potential activities for the rest of the day – Konata got outvoted on her "ero-scenes are always the answer" – the three girls settled for watching some movies.

---(Kagami POV)

Kagami really didn't want to open her eyes.

She felt warm, she could feel something soft on both sides, and she had this distinct feeling that someone was breathing in her ear – which was just silly, why would anyone be breathing in her ear?

Her eyelids proved to be unusually heavy and she had to struggle to open them. When she finally managed with this, she wished she hadn't bothered.

Someone really was breathing into her ear. It was only logical that there was something soft on both sides of her, as well as the reason for the comfortable warmth that had probably been responsible for lulling her to sleep in the first place.

She was lying on the sofa, this was not something she had much of a problem with doing from time to time – though her back would hurt afterwards.

Konata had somehow managed to tangle herself in Kagami's legs, but still seemed to be enjoying the sensation considering the way she smiled sweetly in her sleep – it was odd to see something other than a mischievous grin curl those lips.

Misao seemed to be pinned down by having Kagami's head in her lap, which was odd because from what Kagami had learnt from the time together with Misao was that she always moved in her sleep, and now she seemed to be almost perfectly still, although if you looked at her more closely you'd realize that it looked as if she'd been trying to crawl out of the sofa, whilst doing her best in order to remove her own clothes – thankfully, they were still on her.

It was at this point in time that a tiny voice inside of Kagami's head began to panic. How would she get out of this one? How could she get up without waking either, or both, of the girls? How would she explain it to anyone that might enter the room and catch her in this compromising situation?

There was the option of ignoring it and going back to sleep – which felt slightly irresponsible – or the option of waking both of them and acting like it was nothing – she somehow doubted she'd be capable of pulling that one off – or finally there was the option of waking both of them and scolding them – but for doing what, exactly?

The strict girl couldn't really decide between the options, the second one was promising, but difficult, the third one was something she didn't actually feel like doing – they hadn't really done anything to be scolded for – and the first option would feel so nice

It was at this moment that Kagami realized that her eyelids were drooping again, and soon the world turned into a dark, soft, and wonderfully warm place.

---

A/n: This is probably among my favorite chapters – pure fluffiness that it is. It was also a lot of fun to write a feverish Kagami, as well as the odd noises they make.