The Harem Route
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Chapter 10: Return to 'Normalcy'
---(Kagami POV)
It's scary how easily a normal human is capable of adapting to a new situation, even managing to classify it – no matter how strange it was originally – as 'normal'.
Kagami sighed. Even if she tried not to, she couldn't really deny it, she was getting used to having two girls clinging to her – one on each arm – whenever she made her way towards the school.
She still smacked Misao over the head when the fanged girl's hands got frisky, and she still reprimanded Konata when her flirting became too shameless – the standard for measuring that seemed to have gone up recently – but she was getting used to it to the extent that she was actually beginning to count on it.
The strict girl was still adamant about not allowing this kind of behavior when there were other students present, but she wasn't as conscious about it as she'd once been – although she still flinched whenever Konata breathed into her ear.
Basically, it was a perfectly normal day for the tsundere. And that made her feel a little uncomfortable, because this was clearly not the kind of day that other people in her surroundings would have called 'normal'.
Misao groped her, and Konata flirted with her – she tried not to let either of them get to her, but it wasn't the easiest of things to do.
Tsukasa had left before her, wanting to meet up with Miyuki – she still felt a little awkward about her irresponsible little sister having a girlfriend – on her way to school.
Konata had mentioned something about Hiyori – who she hadn't actually had time to yell at for the picture that the small otaku had asked her to draw since she was either unreachable or busy with something when she'd called her. Apparently, Patricia – who Kagami didn't really know all that well – had been following a similar pattern.
Now, normally the last two girls' escapades wouldn't have mattered to the twin-tailed girl, but recent experience had taught her not to ignore odd behavior, since it might hit you with the force of a brick wall falling down the moment you turned your head the other way.
Of course, she felt that she was probably only being paranoid, but when she caught a glimpse of the two girls walking while holding hands, she had to admit that she wasn't all that surprised.
Konata also seemed to notice it and dropped a comment about the springtime of youth, leaving Misao – who'd missed it – in a state of bewildered confusion.
After several hours of studying – and ignoring how a certain fanged girl seemed to be paying more attention to her than the lessons – it was time to return home.
Her family seemed to have also gotten used to how their second-to-youngest daughter was always escorted by her two 'friends', and was actually beginning to make room for them by the dinner table. It felt a little odd, but still somehow managed to make it within the boundaries of this seriously messed up 'normal' of hers.
Basically, it should've been a very strange – and as a result exhausting – day for Kagami, but it felt like it was just your average school day.
---(Konata POV)
Everyone have at some point in their lives looked back at their actions and asked themselves, 'Why the hell did I do that?', this is even a common occurrence for some people. Konata wasn't usually among those people though.
This might be because the small otaku actually thought through her actions very carefully before actually committing them – very unlikely – or it might have been because she never reflected on her actions in any effort to better herself – uncomfortably likely. Whatever the case, she was now looking back at her previous actions and asked herself that very question.
She wasn't really sure how she'd gotten herself involved in this situation, nor was she completely sure about the events leading up to it, but as she adjusted the earpiece that Ayano had supplied the two of them with, she knew that she'd come too far to go back now.
According to their inside-man – who was technically outside with a pair of binoculars – Kagami was still downstairs with the rest of her family, enjoying their normal time in front of the television. This meant that, as long as the two of them didn't make any noise, there shouldn't be any problems with their mission.
Konata felt slightly uncomfortable with the whole idea of sneaking into Kagami's room like this, but – as she'd previously stated – she'd come too far to turn back now.
Misao was keeping herself busy by rummaging through what appeared to be Kagami's sock drawer, the small otaku suspected that her reasons for this was related to the possibility of being able to rummage through Kagami's panty drawer next.
Konata still wasn't completely sure how she'd been talked into this – although, since she couldn't recall who among the three of them had been the one to suggest this, there was the possibility that she'd been the one convincing the rest – but since she'd decided to go along with it, she might as well do a proper job of it.
With these kinds of thoughts spinning through her head, Konata began her search among the more common hiding places – under the bed, behind furniture and the like.
Along the way she became a little sidetracked as Misao finally took her search to the panty drawer. In fact, she actually ended up joining the fanged girl in a duet of 'ooh's and 'aah's as all of the tsundere's different panties were thoroughly inspected.
Whilst being caught up in doing this, the two girls found themselves slowly forgetting about the whole 'keeping quiet' part of their mission.
They didn't realize the mistake of this until there was a sudden warning from their 'inside-man', unfortunately for the two girls, it came too late.
As the they scrambled to their feet, they were interrupted as the door burst open, revealing a Kagami who looked very much like the kind of demon who's fire-breath was the gentlest part of it.
It was at this moment that Konata finally realized where she'd put that videogame that she hadn't played since middle school – she'd accidentally sat on it, and had been forced to throw it away – the reason for this sudden insight, was the small otaku's life flashing in front of her eyes.
---(Kagami POV)
Kagami wasn't really sure what the hell was going at the moment, but she decided that, whatever it was, it needed to stop now.
There is a limit to how angry a person can become before they sort of cancel themselves out, but the twin-tailed girl didn't really have that problem, since not only was she feeling an absurd amount of rage, but also an extreme sense of embarrassment – even for a non-tsundere, walking in on two people that are looking through your panty drawer with such enthusiasm is not good for their blood pressure.
Apparently, the two girls had realized that they weren't in the safest of situation – she could practically see how Konata's life flashed before her eyes, and Misao seemed to be having similar flashbacks – and so she was caught off guard when she, upon moving into the room, was suddenly passed by the small otaku.
From the confusion created from having Konata slip by her, Misao also managed to find an opening – although jumping out of a second story window felt somewhat extreme to Kagami.
In the end, she realized that she'd lost her moment. Konata had already gotten too much of an head start, and Misao was already moving from where she'd landed – albeit looking like she was limping slightly.
The twin-tailed girl sighed and resolved to extract her revenge when next seeing them, then she began to clean up the mess that they'd left after running away.
---(Ayano POV)
As Ayano saw the two girls struggling to escape, she put her hands together in a short prayer for their safety – it wouldn't be any fun to look back and laugh at today if there'd been an actual casualty.
As she began to pack away her things, he arrived, looking just as happily confused as he'd done when he'd been hired as an accomplice to the operation – it's not every day that your girlfriend asks you to help her spy on another girl so that two other girls can sneak into her room.
He'd clearly been enjoying the confusion that her instructions had brought him, and even though he had made some complaints about being used as a packhorse, he'd been smiling at the time, so Ayano hadn't really taken him all too seriously.
---(Kagami POV)
Studying had always come naturally to Kagami. Not as in 'she understood everything' but rather, it felt normal to study for her. Even she had a limit where she was unable to actually stuff anything else into her head, but that limit seemed to be much further away for her than for example her little sister.
Over the years, she'd come to rely on studying as a way to distract herself from things she didn't want to think about – Konata's embarrassing comments were usually among these things – but it didn't always work. Sometimes it became the other way around, with her being unable to study because of the things that she kept on remembering.
It was when this happened that she realized that to many of her friends, this was how it always was, and it was during these times that she actually admired her little sister's many valiant attempts at studying.
As you might have guessed, this was one of those times, but the reason wasn't what she'd thought it would be. Rather than being distracted by the embarrassment of having her two suitors rummaging through her panty drawer, she was slowly coming to realize that she wasn't actually mad at them – she couldn't deny the lack of anger after having laughed so hard when remembering their desperate attempts to flee.
This was what kept her from thinking of whatever it was that she was supposed to study at the moment – she really was having a lot of troubles with concentrating. Why aren't I mad at them? The questioning thought was no closer to being answered now than it'd been a few hours ago.
Finally, she gave up on her homework, declaring it a lost cause, and found some paper on which to write down the worms nest of thoughts that was currently located inside her head.
There was no doubt that she had been mad at the two girls when she'd discovered them, and they hadn't done anything to apologize to her, so there shouldn't be any reason for her to forgive them. But she had forgiven them, and she couldn't really understand why.
She began to think of a list of all the times the two of them had done stupid things in the past: Misao had given that weird confession only to randomly change the subject, Konata had stolen her first kiss, the two of them had gotten her completely drenched – the list went on in a similar manner – but for some reason, she couldn't really remember being mad at either of them for much longer than a day, if even that.
Basically, although she hadn't realized it until now, she'd never been able to stay mad at them for long. She couldn't pinpoint any actual reason, and the thought that she'd simply gotten used to it didn't seem to be correct, considering how she'd done so even from the get go.
Kagami remembered the events during the school trip and slowly a possibility began to form in her head. No way, there's just no way… but… what if?
---(Hiyori POV)
"Hiyori and I, are dating," Patricia's voice sounded slightly embarrassed – which was quite unusual – and Hiyori could feel her own face growing red.
The response was left hanging for a while as both of the two girls seemed to have been stunned silent by Patricia's final wording – Hiyori had tried, but had proved unable to form coherent sentences.
"Umm…" Yutaka – being the general spokesperson for the two – opened her mouth to respond, unfortunately, it wasn't the most sensible of responses.
Minami looked very much like someone had lit her face on fire, and was currently finding everywhere-but-her-friends to be extremely interesting, and was caught up in studying it intensely.
"Well… actually," hesitating for a quick glance towards the taller girl, Yutaka continued, "Minami and I are dating too," the words seemed to tumble over each other in their hurry to exit her mouth.
Hiyori stared at the two girls – who were becoming a continuous red – for a moment and then picked up her sketchbook. This needed to be drawn, and there was no way she'd let the dripping feeling coming from her nose stop her.
Patricia responded in a way that seemed to suit her normal antics more than the previous embarrassment.
Laughing happily, she latched on to her two friends in a spontaneous hug.
---(Konata POV)
"I can't believe you jumped out of a second story window just like that."
"I panicked, okay? Just drop it already," Misao grumbled to herself, a tint of red coating her cheeks as she leaned on the small otaku to keep from stumbling.
Even though the mission had been a failure – which wasn't all that surprising – it felt like it was almost worth it, if only to see Misao limping along wearing a rare frown on her unusually red face. Basically, she was grumbling because Konata had laughed so hard when she'd found out how the fanged girl had escaped from the tsundere's wrath, and she was embarrassed from having to lean on the smaller girl's shoulder – it wasn't much of a limp, but it still hurt.
Ayano hadn't contacted them, which didn't surprise either of them, her words still ringing in their ears, "I'll help you out, but if you get busted, I'm leaving you to the wolves," it wasn't the kindest of things to say, but since she didn't have anything to gain from helping them out in the first place – except for a way to pass the time – it made sense.
There hadn't been any signs of pursuit from Kagami either, so they seemed to have gotten away with it – for now anyway.
They made a peculiar sight to any who saw them, the smaller girl – who was still chuckling on occasion – supporting the other – who was blushing and grumbling under her breath – while they made their way towards Konata's house – it was the closest one.
Konata might've been worried about how things would work out next time they saw the twin-tailed girl, but she felt as if there wasn't really any need to worry – though she would have to keep an eye out for all of the escape routes when they met again, but that was just common sense.
---(Kagami POV)
The entire Hiiragi family ground to a halt, staring in shock at the second youngest member, as they tried to piece together what had just been said.
"Onee-chan…?" surprisingly enough, Tsukasa was the first to speak up – the confused look she was wearing was to be expected though.
"Kagami?" the second one to speak up was the daughter's mother, and although she looked somewhat confused as well, it wasn't the same kind of surprise that was written over the face of Kagami's little sister.
"I'm just curious is all," it was obvious that the rest of the family seriously doubted that, but they decided not to mention it out loud.
"I don't know about all of those complicated things…" their father finally opened his mouth, sounding about as 'eternally wise' as a gold fish, "but as long as two people truly love each other, it should be fine, right?"
Kagami felt her cheeks growing hotter as she considered asking another question, but quickly decided against it, unsure if this was really the right time or place for something like that.
"Umm…" Tsukasa called attention to herself as she seemed to be torn about something – Kagami had a guess on what this was about – "Then, if I were to say that I'm… dating Miyuki…?"
Once again, the table froze over, only this time they were all staring at the youngest member of the family.
"Wow, I didn't expect that…" Matsuri was staring at her with something caught in between, shock, humor, wishing her 'good luck', and jealousy of being beaten to the couple thing by her youngest sister.
This seemed to be the general reaction, until Miki finally turned her eyes back towards Kagami.
"You've been picked up by those two girls every day for school for some time now, haven't you?" the twin-tailed girl visibly flinched, causing the rest of the family to lean back in, curiosity gaining the upper hand.
Kagami was trying not to panic, she hadn't been counting on her mother being quite that perceptive.
---(Konata POV)
Since it would've been somewhat difficult for the fanged girl to walk all the way home by herself, a sleepover was arranged – Sojirou had been wearing that 'don't disturb me I'm having thoughts that could totally get me arrested' look again.
Unfortunately for the Gundam-fan, there was a call from his work, telling him to get his ass over there right away – they'd literally said that, Konata had heard it from across the room.
Dinner had proven to be just as annoying as Konata had imagined – she still remembered preparing breakfast for the fanged girl a while back – and she found herself struggling against a sudden desire to strap Misao to her chair until she was done. Admittedly, there had been some awkward afterimages showing up in her head as a result of that desire – causing her to, for once in her life, curse her own perverted mind.
Neither of the girls had had any idea of what to do, so they'd simply ended up watching a movie – anime, of course – which they then proceeded to criticize, as a way to pass the time.
This might sound like a boring thing to do, criticizing something is only fun for a certain amount of time after all, but since the two of them had trouble agreeing about which parts were the correct parts to criticize, it soon became something of an all-out brawl.
Democracy was for politicians, this was based on the 'the winner takes it all' principle.
Before they were able to crown a winner however, they were interrupted by the doorbell.
Standing there in the doorway was a beautiful girl who looked as if she was torn between freezing up, fighting, and running away. Now, there had to be a good explanation for Kagami standing in the doorway to the Izumi household at this time of day – or would you call it night? – but Konata couldn't really see it.
Concluding that there was no immediate threat – they had pissed her off only a few hours ago after all – Konata invited her inside, somewhat worried about the girl's pained expression. Misao seemed equally uncomfortable about it, and had shut off the television completely.
There was silence in the entire house, all of its occupants holding their breaths, until the twin-tailed girl finally opened her mouth.
"Both of you have… confessed that you love me previously…" swallowing slightly, the girl continued, "I think it's time that I give you an answer."
The tension in the air felt as if it could be cut with a knife.
"I…" hesitating a little, she forced herself to continue, "I think I'm in love with both of you."
Konata blinked. She had a vague idea of Misao doing something similar, but she was too focused on trying to process Kagami's words.
"I'm horrible, I can't even…" Kagami looked on the verge of tears, causing a stab of pain to shoot through the smaller girl's heart.
Kagami shouldn't be crying like this, Kagami should be angry, annoyed, or just generally peeved at her two suitors. They should never bring her pain.
Konata wasn't really sure who of them had moved first, but that was okay, it simply meant that the two of them had admitted it. There was nothing more important than Kagami. And, even though neither of them wished to hand her over to the other, they would do so without hesitation if it meant that she would be happy.
Kagami was trembling as tears finally began to fall, Konata felt one of her arms reaching behind her, bringing her even closer. She knew that the same had happened to Misao, who was now stroking the crying girl's head gently in an attempt to comfort her.
Konata kissed her on her tearstained cheek, and smiled happily. She was loved in return. Even if it meant that she couldn't have her all to herself, this alone was enough.
"Kagamin," the twin-tailed girl opened her eyes to look at her, "It's okay if you can't choose, as long as you're happy, I don't mind sharing."
Kagami stared at her, confusion obvious in her eyes, until Misao kissed her other cheek.
…
"Kagami, you taste salty."
---
A/n: It took her quite some time to admit that, didn't it? This was another one of those 'kind of merged together chapters', and so the only thing left after this is the epilogue – which hopefully won't let anyone down.