iBarelyReview: Thanks =) And I'm planning on it- Chikaru is kind of hard to keep in character, but hopefully I'll be able to write their relationship well =)

Shadow Apparition: Thanks, and I'll try to update quickly. The problem is that with college and all, it does take a while =/

TheNomade5: Thanks, and I thought so too =) I kinda figure Tamao needs someone to take care of HER once in a while.

XRosarioX: Thanks =) and thanks again lol

Stavri: Yep, I'm in the process of deciding what exactly is going to happen between them.

Kaze Rei: Yeah, I kinda gave Hikari a personality, but I'm trying not to make her too OOC. She's really not TRYING to hurt anyone, but she really isn't mature enough to realize that what she's doing is the same thing. She kinda thinks she has a right to Yaya, I guess.

Anonymous: Thanks =)

Kaizer20: What gives you the impression that I'm a cute geek/nerd? Maybe I'm super gross. With a mustache o.O Anyway, sorry about that- I really just let the story kind of write itself- I didn't even know I set it to humor. I kinda thought it was just on Romance =P I can try to put out a oneshot, since it's not something I'd have to follow up on, but again, with college, it might take a while =P Plus I kinda suck at writing humor. I don't have the wit for it xP But I can try =) Btw, I took Spanish in high school and understood most of it: 'I like your story! This can finish! (nobody translate this for her)' Correct? =P

Huggler: To answer your question, I don't really know. I like to see Tamao with any of the more feminine older girls really- even Momomi and Tamao is a guilty pleasure of MINE. I think the main reason I don't love Chikaru and Tamao together is because I like Chikaru and Shion together. But this whole story is kind of about me leaving my comfort zone, so…Shion/Miyuki and Chikaru/Tamao for everyone! xD

So guys- this is the most amount of reviews I've ever had for a story! Thanks a million =)

Also: I'll be updating more often, at least for a while, since none of my roommates like me, and I'm the only one of them who has no friends yet, and fanfiction and the internet is all that keeps me feeling somewhat human =P *is pathetic*

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How Can You See With Your Eyes Closed?

Chapter Eleven: Such a Pretty Girl

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Tsubomi lay curled on her side in the center of the bed; Amane may not have been an interesting roommate, but at least she was chivalrous. The Prince of Spica had taken the floor without question, and Tsubomi had been too exhausted and nervous to try and talk her out of it. So the pinkette was left lying in the center of the king sized bed like a curled up kitten, her stomach twisting uncomfortably and her arms wrapped around herself protectively.

You can trust her- it's different now. She turned Hikari-sempai down once, and she can do it again.

Yeah, right.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Yaya- it was just that she knew how deeply Yaya had loved Hikari, and that her feelings couldn't possibly just disappear overnight.

"I don't think that Hikari truly loves Nanto-san, if that helps at all." Tsubomi looked up to find Amane looking back at her slightly awkwardly, as if she didn't know quite what to say to a distraught teen girl.

The pinkette shrugged. "I don't think Hikari-sempai likes girls at all, to be honest," Tsubomi said dully. "Since she goes to this school, she probably thinks it's more normal to like them, though, so she tries to fit in." Really, Tsubomi couldn't blame her at all, but she was upset, and being upset was no fun when there was no one to blame.

Amane shrugged and went back to whatever she was doing, and Tsubomi rolled onto her other side, not feeling particularly social at the moment. There was an aching emptiness in her stomach, like everything that she'd waited so long for was about to be ripped from her fingertips, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

PGBR

Well damn, Yaya thought as she stared at the large, single bed in the center of the room. She really didn't want to sleep on the floor, but Tsubomi had seemed very upset, and she didn't want to make Hikari sleep on the floor instead.

Said blonde had already made herself comfortable on the bed and was looking up at Yaya with silent questions in her eyes. "I don't think Tsubomi would really mind if we shared," Hikari began, "I think she was just upset."

Yaya shook her head slowly. Yes, Tsubomi was upset, but she highly doubted Tsubomi wouldn't mind if she shared a bed with Hikari. The pinkette was usually quiet about her jealousy or distaste, but her body language made it fairly obvious when she was serious and when she wasn't. "I don't know," she said, sinking down onto a chair beside the bed. "I think she's upset enough that we're in the same room together."

Hikari frowned slightly. "So she doesn't trust you?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. There was an unidentifiable gleam in her eyes.

"I don't know- I guess not," Yaya replied sullenly. She stuffed her hands into the pockets of her cutoffs and met Hikari's gaze with a wary smile. "It's not like you did."

Hikari swallowed, instantly knowing what Yaya was talking about, recalling the night she jerked away from the brunette as if she'd been burned- the night she'd shoved Yaya to the floor for fear of the feelings that had overwhelmed her. "I was never afraid of you, Yaya-chan," she said quietly, raising her gaze only to find Yaya staring at the floor, eyes full of self-loathing just as they had been that night. Slowly she shifted so that she was facing Yaya, who kept her head bent to the floor, and reached out, running the backs of her cool fingers along the brunette's cheek. She felt Yaya's jaw tense beneath her touch and reveled in the sensation.

As if in a desperate final defense, Yaya raised her hand and grabbed Hikari's wrist, gently moving the blonde's hand away from her face, but the second it was gone, the blonde replaced her hand with her lips, kissing the heated skin. Hikari placed several gentle, feather light kisses to her skin before shifting to her lips, and Yaya's eyes widened for half a second before they snapped shut altogether, and a guttural moan slipped from her throat. Her hands slipped down to rest none-too-gently on Hikari's hips, as if holding her there, safe in her arms for once.

PGBR

Tamao sat cross-legged on the right side of the bed, biting her lip while Chikaru lounged next to her, reading what appeared to be classic literature. The brunette was wearing a pair of dark-rimmed reading glasses, soft booty pajama shorts and a lacy tank top, her expression blank. Tamao couldn't help but find the scene both cute and relaxing- there was just something about the older girl that made her feel safe and secure; unjudged.

"What are you thinking about that's got you concentrating so hard?

Tamao gave a start, her eyes flitting over to the brunette beside her, who was now smiling softly up at her. Chikaru marked her page and set the book aside, sitting up on the bed and crawling across it so that she was facing the blunette directly. Tamao blushed at the attention and stumbled over her thoughts for a moment before finally saying, "Remember when we talked about relationships? That day that Miyuki-sama's fiancé got banned from campus?"

Chikaru nodded slowly.

Tamao took a deep breath. "Well, I know I said Yaya was better off with Tsubomi, and I still believe it," she began, "but something seems different about Hikari-chan. Like something's changed, and I don't like the way she's acting around Yaya-chan." She paused for a moment. "And as much as I'd like to say that it doesn't matter, I don't think Yaya-chan is completely over Hikari, not with how much she loved her. And I don't want Tsubomi to get hurt…" She trailed off, eyes full of turmoil, as if she felt there was something she should be doing for her young pink-haired friend.

Chikaru smiled gently and slipped around behind Tamao, wrapping the smaller girl in her arms and resting her chin on the blunette's shoulder. It was a dangerous position, but Chikaru had never been one to run from opportunities, and she wasn't about to sit on the sidelines while she had even the slightest chance of winning Tamao's heart. "Sometimes, we can't help but to hurt the ones we love," Chikaru said softly, "and I'm sure Tsubomi-chan understands that. That's probably why she laid so many ground rules for Hikari-chan and Yaya-chan."

"I don't know if Yaya-chan will be able to control herself," Tamao said quietly, as if she were saying something she really shouldn't. "I do trust her to not start anything with Hikari, but if Hikari started anything with her…I don't know if I'd trust myself in the same situation, with Hikari instead of Nagisa. There's just no way to make those feelings disappear."

Chikaru fixed her with a sad smile to cover up the pang she'd felt in her heart and sighed on the inside. Something had to change or Tamao would never get over her impossible love for Nagisa, and even Chikaru with all her patience could only stand on the sidelines for so long. She discreetly tightened her hold on Tamao's waist and pulled the girl so that she was sitting in between her legs.

Tamao's face flushed- she knew Chikaru was a very affectionate person by reputation alone, and she'd seen the brunette comforting more than one upset girl before. But something about the position Chikaru had maneuvered them into felt more intimate than a simple comforting hug. It didn't feel wrong, per say, but just…different, like there had to be something wrong with feeling so secure in a friend's arms. She pushed back the nagging voice in the back of her mind and allowed herself to relax in Chikaru's surprisingly strong embrace.

You love too easily- you need to run before you get your heart broken again.

PGBR

After she had somewhat emerged from her depressive state, Tsubomi decided to head down to Yaya and Hikari's room, just to make sure they were following her rules. Not bothering to knock before entering, she slipped into the room with a small smile that was wiped from her face instantly.

Tsubomi stared at the slumped Yaya and the cheerful Hikari, and her brow furrowed, as she wondered what could possibly have happened. And then it hit her, and her hand instantly flew to her stomach, and she felt as though her insides were tying themselves into hard, tight knots. Her eyes suddenly felt too dry, and her stomach ached with the tears that she needed to cry, but she swallowed them back for long enough to lean against the doorframe and stare at the brunette until empty eyes met her own.

"You kissed her, didn't you?" she asked, almost surprised by how steady and empty her voice sounded. "You kissed her."

Yaya didn't say anything, only looked up at the pinkette with such sad eyes that it almost made Tsubomi lose her resolve right there. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but Hikari chimed in before she could say anything. "No, I kissed her," the blonde said in her defense, and then, with the slightest of smug smiles (but maybe it was only Tsubomi remembering it that way, as Hikari tore away everything she'd worked so hard for), "but she kissed me back." She looked over at Yaya with such genuine love in her eyes that Tsubomi's stomachache suddenly became ten times worse.

The entire room became foggy, and Tsubomi blinked several times before realizing that the room wasn't the problem- it was her eyes, clouding up with tears she was just barely holding back.

"Tsubomi…" Yaya choked out, but the pinkette shook her head violently before brushing her hair back to reveal a wavering smile.

"It's okay- it's not like it was ever going to last, right?" she asked, her voice suddenly as unsteady as her legs. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt… Suddenly she couldn't hold back the tears any longer and she pushed out of the room, shoving Yaya back when the brunette suddenly seemed to grow a backbone and tried to run after her.

Thanking whatever god that was listening that Yaya stayed put once she'd been shoved away, Tsubomi raced down the hallway and barreled into the first room she came across, falling directly into a stunned Shion's arms as the blonde exited her room.

"Tsubomi-chan?" Shion asked, flustered, before Miyuki pushed her to the side and took Tsubomi into her arms, leading her into the room where the pinkette collapsed on the large bed, curling into a small, trembling ball. "B-but…she…" Shion stuttered, gesturing wildly to the pinkette on their bed. "Miyuki, what's going o-"

The blunette clamped a hand over Shion's mouth and led her, struggling, out of the room, closing the door behind them. She didn't know Tsubomi well, but she'd seen just as well as anyone else how the pinkette and brunette relied on each other more than anything. If Yaya was the problem (which Miyuki had picked up from the choppy sentence fragments Tsubomi had uttered between sobs), the pinkette would be better off left alone until she could collect herself.

PGBR

In Tamao and Chikaru's room, Yaya cowered beneath Tamao's glare.

"How could you do that to her?" the blunette asked, incredulous as Chikaru sat silently beside her, keeping a hand on her hip to keep her from doing anything too rash. "How could you hurt her like that, knowing how it feels?" Tamao was seething- after having her own heart broken by an oblivious Nagisa, she'd related to Yaya's pain, but now that Yaya was doing the same thing to the pinkette she'd come to love like a sister, she couldn't contain her anger. "You're the most selfish person I've ever met, Yaya Nanto," she spat, reminiscent of only several weeks before, when she'd believed that Yaya had accepted Hikari as her girlfriend. "It's never enough for you, is it? How dare you come in here, crying, expecting to be comforted when you didn't even try to push Hikari away?"

"Tamao-chan…" Chikaru murmured, pressing down slightly on her hip and sitting up straighter, indicating that the blunette should step down. She didn't know what to say to Yaya- that giving in to temptation was wrong? But the brunette already knew as much by the look on her face. So Chikaru did the only thing she could at the moment and stood, walking over to Yaya and gathering the taller girl into a hug. Yaya's eyes fluttered shut, and she let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. There were no tears, only regret, and the realization that she couldn't just wake up from this nightmare, and that what she had wanted and what she needed were two different things.

Tamao sat back and watched as Chikaru embraced Yaya, feeling an uncomfortable twinge in her chest that she really, really shouldn't have been feeling, considering the drama of the situation. But watching Chikaru comfort Yaya like that gave her the strangest urge to slip in between them and wrap her own arms around the Le Rim president's neck. It wasn't a feeling she was necessarily familiar with- with Nagisa, she would always just try to hold on, try to win the girl over with love, which obviously wasn't enough. But now all she wanted was to make Chikaru pay attention to her- to make her look at her instead of Yaya, to somehow slip into her arms and make the younger girl see who she belonged to.

Wait, belonged to? Where was that coming from?

Tamao knew she was prone to overreact or romanticize when it came to relationships, and she was aware that she was only going to keep getting her heart broken that way. But something about Chikaru seemed somehow safe to her, like even if her feelings weren't returned, nothing would have to change.

Whatever was happening to her, all Tamao knew at the moment was that she missed Chikaru's arms around her, and that seeing her embrace Yaya like she was made her feel sick to her stomach.

As if sensing something was off, Chikaru slipped away from Yaya and turned to face Tamao, who barely had enough time to avert her gaze. The older girl frowned slightly, as if she were judging whether or not to investigate further, and Tamao was actually glad when Yaya called her attention away from her by standing up. "I've got to go talk to her," the brunette declared, and Tamao rolled her eyes. Leave it to Yaya, honestly.

"It might be a bit too early for that, Yaya-chan," Chikaru said gently. "Especially with a girl like Tsubomi-chan."

Yaya frowned, rubbing the back of her head. "But…Tsubomi-chan loves attention- she never gets enough of it from people," she said slowly. "If I just let her go off by herself, it'll get even worse."

"And you think she wants to see you right now?" Tamao asked with a raised eyebrow, ignoring Chikaru's subtle stare.

Yaya shrugged. "At least if I try, she won't hole herself up thinking I'm in love with Hikari," she muttered.

"And you aren't?"

This time Chikaru stood and pulled Tamao close to her, sitting down on the bed so that she could better control what came out of the blunette's mouth. Yaya paused, an absolutely heartbreaking glint in her eyes. "I'm not," she said quietly. "I just…I never got closure, and by the time I did…" She broke off and pushed out of the room, leaving Chikaru and Tamao sitting in their awkward position on the bed.

Tamao heard a sigh from behind her and freed herself from Chikaru's grasp, slipping into a corner across the room with her arms folded loosely over her chest. Chikaru stood as well, but stayed where she was, gazing inquisitively at the blunette. "Was that really necessary?" she finally asked with a small smile. "I'm sure Yaya-chan already knew what she'd done."

Tamao shook her head. "Yaya-chan never understands what she's done, even when it smacks her in the face," she said. "She doesn't realize how much she's hurt Tsubomi, only that it hurt her too." She swallowed back what felt like a rock in her throat and continued, "People never really realize how much their actions hurt others- as long as they're happy with themselves, they don't care at all."

"I don't think that's true," Chikaru replied, walking so that she was a few feet away from Tamao. She reached out to pull the blunette into a hug, but Tamao shied away.

"Yes, it is," she said in what was nearly a whisper. "Sometimes they don't even notice that people are hurting at all. Sometimes they're so caught up in loving the wrong person that they can't see what's two inches away from them."

Chikaru felt as if the sentence had pierced her through her heart. Now she understood- this wasn't about Yaya and Tsubomi anymore. It was about Nagisa and her love for Shizuma. The older girl let her hand drop to her side and took a deep breath, willing the reflexive ache to disappear. She may have been the queen of kindness and calm, but she wasn't invincible, and Tamao's undying love for Nagisa was really starting to hit her where it hurt. "Unfortunately, that kind of thing is far too common," Chikaru said quietly, noting the irony of Tamao's words. Then she took another breath- it might be killing her to love Tamao like this, but she needed to be who Tamao needed right now, and Tamao needed someone who she could talk to more than anything.

Tamao felt slender arms wrap around her once again, and this time, she allowed Chikaru to hold her, burying her face in the black-haired girl's sweater. It was terrifying, and she knew the last thing she should be doing was holding tighter to the girl who she was falling faster and faster for, but as usual, she couldn't bring herself to pull away.

So Hikari's had feelings for Yaya for a while- but can you honestly say you're surprised? And please don't kill me- this is still YayaXTsubomi! I just had to make the plot a bit more…realistic, I guess.