Author's Note: Yah, so I bombed my first Chem test but in my class the lowest test grade get's dropped at the end of the semester so it's all good. What else...got to clean my dorm room before my folks visit this weekend, I'm thinking about taking them to this Japanese restaraunt that supposed to be good, but if they don't want to we could always go for Ikea food. Oh, I know it's a day late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY YUI! I WILL OBEY THE TRAFFIC LAWS AT ALL TIMES! WHICH IS GREAT BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE ACCESS TO A CAR RIGHT NOW! That's enough Caps for now. Let's get back to the story.

Chapter 22: Towels are Our Friends

Kagami's trip home to grab her textbooks was uneventful, there was no sign of Tsukasa or her alleged stalkers anywhere. Kagami decided not to dwell on what happened over the past few hours so no one at home would raise suspicion.

When she stepped into the house, she narrowly missed getting tackled by Matsuri, who ended up crashing her head into a nearby wall.

"You okay, Matsuri?"

"Yeah, I think so." Matsuri began to wave her hand around in the air, like see was writing something. "Note to self: tackle siblings only in open areas."

Kagami furrowed her eyebrows. "Any particular reason you tried to tackle me?"

Matsuri pushed herself up into a sitting position, rubbing her chin in a thinking manner with one hand and using the other to feel the new bump on her head.

"Yeah…I had a question for you..but…"

Matsuri closed her eyes and crossed her arms and legs and pondered in deep concentration. Kagami had half a mind to just walk away, but as soon as she was about too, Matsuri's eyes opened.

"Now I remember!"

Kagami expected more, but the only thing that followed her statement was more silence. And then Matsuri spoke again.

"Yeah, I remember that I couldn't remember the question I was going to ask you!"

Kagami looked incredulously at her older sister. "How did she get into college again?"

"Oh, Kagami there you are." Kagami turned to see her mother Miki walking towards her with a concerned look on her face.

"What is it, Mom?" Kagami asked without sounding nervous at all.

"Have you seen Tsukasa lately?"

"That's what I was going to ask you!" Matsuri said in a "How could I forget?" tone, forcing her palm into her face for her moment of stupidity.

"No" Kagami lied. "Is something wrong?"she asked while trying to sound as clueless as possible.

Miki's face scrunched up in distress and concern. "She came home a little while. She looked like she had a good scare, her face was pretty pale, like she had seen a ghost or something, and seemed to be drained of her energy. I asked if everything was alright, but she didn't respond to me. She grabbed her book bag and said she was going to Yuki-chan's house. Are you going there as well?"

"Yeah, she invited us to come over and study so I just came back to pick up my books."

"Can you find out what's worrying her? I haven't seen her look so scared in a while."

"She probably just saw a scary movie or something." Kagami dodged the question since she was wondering the same thing as well, but for a different reason.

After picking up her books, Kagami noticed how dark clouds started to form outside.

"That's weird. It was sunny today when I went out with Konata earlier and I don't remember hearing the weather report expecting any rain. Might as well bring an umbrella."

That turned out to be a somewhat useless idea, since as soon as Kagami left her house it soon because what Kagami thought would be simple shower turned into a torrential downpour. All the trees around her seem to warp because of the wind, branches flying in different directions. All the local shops seemed to have closed down even though the rain had only just started. It was like Susanoo(1) himself was orchestrating the heaviest part of the rain directly at Kagami .She tried to face her umbrella against the rain, but the gusty wind ended up turning the umbrella inside out.

"You got to be kidding me!" Kagami angrily yelled. Like yelling against the Shinto god of the storms was going to do any good in the first place. In fact, it only seemed to make him angrier as the wind picked up and ended up blowing her umbrella down the street until it got caught high in a tree.

"Great. As if things could possibly get any worse!" Kagami yelled more. Realizing her folly, she clutched her book bag and started running. Miyuki's house was still a few blocks away, so in this weather making sure her books didn't get wet was her priority.

"Oh my, I hope Kagami-san doesn't get caught up in all this rain" a distraught Miyuki said looking out of her window.

"Don't worry about her. If I know Kagami, she would have brought an umbrella with her" said a confident Konata while playing around with her phone.

"But what if the umbrella turns inside out and blows away?" Tsukasa asked, concerned for her sister, her normally perky bow starting to droop, it even seem to lose it's normally yellow color.

"Oh please Tsukasa, that only happens in anime. That and the main character would usually brave the storm in order to profess her love to the girl of their dreams." Konata suddenly gasped, turned her head and covered her mouth with her hand. "Not again! What is wrong with me?"

"I see" said a cheery Tsukasa, completely oblivious to Konata's last statement, her bow returning to its former glory.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Konata's head bobbed out of the F*te/ St*y douijn, er math textbook she was reading, knowing it was Kagami. Konata figured after being stuck in the rain, a good hug between "friends" would be the perfect way warm her up. She jumped up to go greet her, but someone else wanted to see her too.

"I betcha that's Hiiragi! I'll get it!" the challenger proclaimed, and started heading down the hall.

"Not before I do!" Konata promised herself. She suddenly felt the urge to jump up and start dashing down the hall.

"Oy, Chibikko , you wanna race?" Her opponent's fang glistened in the light. "Fine then, just realize you're going against the Fearful Fang of the West!"

Konata's eyes glistened with anticipation. "A worthy adversary indeed!"

Both of them started bolting down the hallway at top speed. As athletic as Konata was, she was going up against the start of the Girl's track and field team, so getting to the front door would be not easy.

"The only thing she has got going for her are those long legs. But if I can stay on the inside corner, I'll be in the clear!"

Konata sped up ahead, knowing her victory was guaranteed at this point. She turned the corner and…

"UWAH!"

Waiting outside Miyuki's front door, Kagami could hear the sound of two people colliding against each other. A few seconds later, the door opened.

"Hey there Hiiragi!"

"Kusukabe, what are you doing here?" Kagami inquired.

"Miyuki said since we're in your class, Ayano and I might as study with you for the upcoming tests before summer break."

"I guess that makes sense. By the way what was that crash I heard?"

"Crash? That was just Shorty back there during our race to the front door." Misao pointed her thumb in the direction Kagami had heard the noise. "I totally beat her, but what did she expect going against the Golden-Eye Flash?"

Kagami didn't really care much of what else Misao said as she ran down the hall to see Konata with her eyes closed, sprawled out on the floor with some other girl.

"Konata!" Kagami ran over and placed own of arms under her girlfriend's head.

Konata's eyes fluttered open, staring into the azure-blue eyes of a twin-tailed angel. A sopping wet twin-tailed angel who was dripping cold water onto her face.

She smirked. "Hey Kagami, it's good to see you and all, but your kinda giving me an indirect bath right now."

"What are you talking about?" Kagami said, a small blush forming on her face.

Kagami didn't even realize how much the rain affected her until Konata brought it up. Shielding her books proved to be actual useful as it seemed not a drop of water got on any of them. On the other hand, Kagami took in all the rain like a sponge and was drenched from head to toe. Kagami turned around and saw pools of water in her trail.

"Didn't you bring an umbrella?" Konata asked.

"Well, I did have one, but it got away from me." Kagami was about to tell her story on her rush to get to Miyuki's house when the other girl started coming too.

"Oww" the girl said, rubbing her temple. "I'm just glad my glasses aren't broken."

A squeaky voice could be heard coming down the hall. "Tamura-san, are you okay?"

Kagami could see the figures of Yutaka, Minami and Patty walking down the hall towards them.

"What are guys doing here?" Kagami asked, with a bit of a perturbed inflexion.

"Miyuki thought it would be a good idea for us to come to her house to study since my house is undergoing some renovations" Minami answered.

"I see… Kagami said, looking back to Konata, who had the same troubled look on her face. "Did Miyuki invite all of our friends from school? I can't ask Tsukasa what she saw with everyone here!"

Meanwhile, Hiyori's eyesight was still gaining focus until she saw what was going on in front of her: Kagami was holding Konata exactly like how she had her doujin version of Minami hold Yutaka, gazing into each other's eyes. If only she hadn't left her sketchpad back in Miyuki's room right now…

Miyuki came walking down the hall, surprised to see Kagami in her current condition. "My Kagami-san, you're dripping wet."

A loud thud followed, the tell-tale sign that Hiyori lost consciousness due to the loss of blood gushing out of her nose.

"Tamura-san! Are you alright?" Miyuki panicked. "I'll call an ambulance!" She was about to pick up the phone when she felt someone else's hand on top of hers. When Miyuki turned her head, she saw Patty with a big grin on her face, shaking her head.

"Martin-san, why are you smiling?"

"Don't worry about Hiyorin, Takara-san."Patty chuckled a bit."I know just what to do in this situation." Patty went over to the mangekka's twitching body, and sat on top of her, lowering her head right on top of Hiyori's.

Patty soon backed off , Kagami breathing a sigh of relief thinking they were going to kiss. She inched her head so it was right up against the side of her head and without warning, Patty started nibbling the part of Hiyori's ear.

At this time, Misao came walking down the hall.

"Hey guys whatcha…" Misao didn't finish her sentence and instead joined the staring of the two people on the floor.

Hiyori's breathing quickened and soon turned into soft moaning. Patty slowly started working her way down.

"No, Miss Suzumiya, stop that…" Hiyori said sleepily, her eyes fluttering. "That feels weird."

The whole hallway was dead silent. After a few seconds, Patty let go of Hiyori's earlobe, seeing her friend start to stir.

Patty snapped her fingers and Hiyori's glazed over eyes disappeared, staring at Patty.

"MIKURU?!"

Patty placed a hand on her friend's shoulder and gave her a big thumbs up with the other hand. "Welcome back to the real world, Hiyorin."

Hiyori rubbed the rest of the sleep out of her eyes. She looked around and saw Konata smiling while Kagami's face was that of a tomato. Miyuki and Yutaka had bright blushes as well, even Minami's face was a distinct shade of red. Misao couldn't help but start laughing like crazy.

"Hahaha! That was great- ahahahaha! Wow are seri-hahaha!" Misao fell to the floor, her arms holding her sides from bursting, her eyes watering a bit. "All this laughi-hahahah is going to hahahahaha me!"

Hiyori's face kept drawing blanks, unable to remember what had just occurred. Either that or she lost too much blood.

"Did I miss something?"

Patty pulled out a napkin from her pocket and started wiping the blood off of her fellow otaku's face. Kagami could notice the foreigner's nose slowly turning red.

"Thanks Patty."

"No problem. I don't think we'd be very good guests if we got Takara-san's carpet all wet with your blood. Unlike some people."

All eyes focused on Kagami, who was still sopping wet. Her face only got darker out of embarrassment.

Miyuki went into the hallway closet and grabbed a big fluffy towel.

"Here you go, Hiiragi-san." She handed it to Kagami. "You must be freezing right now. I'll go run a bath for you."

As everyone finally got over the shock and started to walk away, the only two people left in the hall were Kagami and Konata. Konata enjoyed what was going on the entire time, the awkwardness of the whole situation, being held like that by Kagami and seeing her blush like that, she was on cloud nine.

"Hey Kagami, I have a question for you."

Kagami looked at Konata, who had a mischievous little grin on her face. She wasn't going to lie and say that what happened in front wasn't hot, but she had a very good idea what was on her mind, something about Hiyori.

"Can I borrow that towel for a little bit?"

As drenched as Kagami was, she didn't realize how much water Konata took in just by her presence. Her hair was wet but not as much as Kagami's and her shirt was wet enough that Kagami could see Konata's bra through it.

"I don't think so" Kagami stammered, blushing again. "I mean Miyuki only gave one for me and I'm don't want to give you germs or anything like that." At this point, Kagami was making stuff up as she went.

Konata placed her hand under her chin and went into "Thinking Mode." "I got it!" she proclaimed.

She snatched the towel from Kagami's hand and flung it around the two of them. "Now we can both dry off." Konata locked her arms around Kagami's waist. "You and this towel have a real Fumoffumo feel, it's good."

"Konata…" In truth, Kagami was loving this. The closeness of their bodies combined the heat from the blanket and her girlfriend's body made running out in the middle of a typhoon worth it. Kagami's face started getting closer to the tiny bluenette's but before their lips met Konata got out of the blanket.

"Sorry Kagami" Konata said with a melancholic face "but now is not the time or place."

"…yeah. You're right." For once, she was actually disappointed that Konata didn't take advantage of the situation more. But Kagami understood what Konata was thinking, she could only imagine everyone's reactions if anyone found them in the hall in such a compromising position.

"Now go take your bath and warm up. Don't worry I won't peep."

As Konata started walking back to Miyuki's room, Kagami's face grimaced at bit. "Why can't I take a statement like that at face value?"

Susanoo: Shinto god of sea and storms

Author: On the next episode...

Anizawa: THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! FOR YEARS WE'VE TRIED ALL SORTS OF METHODS TO GET LEGENDARY GIRL A TO NOTICE US! NOW WE HAVE TO GO AS LOW AS INTERRUPTING FAN-FICTIONS IN HOPES ONE DAY SHE'LL READ IT AND SAY "HEY I SHOULD GO TO THAT STORE AND BUY SOME OF THEIR LIMITED EDITION MERCHANDISE!"

Author: You do realize that's impossible right?

*group explosion* WE'RE DESPERATE!!! (crashes into the middle of a highway, causing dozens of cars to swerve out of the way and crash, setting them on fire)

Sugita: Boss, what are we going to do? People might be dead!

Meito: D-don't worry. (tries to slip inside the opening where you get your purchases from in a vending machine) A-All we have to do is find a t-t-time machine.

Sugita: You're the one who needs to calm down!

Author: Great they took up all my airtime. See ya next time!