Those were the Days

by TheTrueWolfBrother

Is this the happy,cheerful Ayumu we know? How things could´ve gone for the girls after graduation, focus on Ayumu. It´s actually an AngstRomanceDramaComedy, if that´s possible. Rated "R" for blood,language and Shoujo-ai.

4. Chapter 3: Fun in the Snow

Disclaimer:Azumanga Daioh and it´s characters is not my work...

A/N: I´m concerned about a certain thing...Whenever I write a chapter I seem to drag on at the same spot for ages.So I wanted to consult you, my readers. I ask of you to, when you review,please give an opinion if I should try to make things

move faster ahead. Other than that I know this isn´t all that angsty , but there will be angst, I just gotta get things going XD.

Excuses: If my language suck I blame it on the fact that my first language is Norwegian, and that English is not an official language in Norway XD

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ayumu looked out through the window and into the night of Hokkaido.
Outside the car window the dark forest streamed past them along with the falling snow.The snow somehow lighted up the dark forest, but only enough to give it an even graver look.
Ayumu looked up,above the trees,searching for the moon.

There was no moon up tonight,but even if it had been it would´ve been hidden behind the carpet of clouds above them.Ayumu couldn´t shake the feeling that the forest would look much more...magical and welcoming...moonlight is one of the things she can
remember clearly.
How it would feel to look up at the moon on a starlit night...somehow it was the only thing she could remember.

Other than that she had seen things that felt familiar, like all the girls in the car with her and the way they acted.
She also still felt a strange urge to grab those pigtails,they didn´t seem right.
No,something´s definately wrong with those pigtails, Ayumu concluded.
But before she had the chance to reach out at the driver the drool girl,no,Tomo-chan, interrupted.

"Hey,Osaka-chan,wasn´t your house around here?"

Ayumu turned to the girl that was sprawling all over the seat,stretching over the glasses girl and spiky ha...no,Yomi-san and Kagura-san.
Somehow Ayumu sensed something would happen before she got the chance to answer,and right she was.
The two girls,veins visible on their foreheads, simultaneously kicked and punched Tomo back into her seat.
"Get the hell back!" They yelled in chorus.
There came a loud "thump" as Tomo was thrown back into her seat,but the energetic girl just grinned at the others uproar.

"Hahaha,you two should see your faces,all red and puffy."

"Well that´s because you shoved your hyperactive,hot body into our faces you moron, all that energy make you all warmed up."

Tomo put on a smirk.

"I´m hot alright, and don´t you know it?"

The two girls blush at the insinuation, but they still manage to be appalled.

"Just what the heck are you getting at here,Tomo?"Yomi practically screams at Tomo.
Tomo,however remain unfased and put on an even more smug smirk.

"Oh, you know, you couldn´t resist me even if you wanted to."

Ayumu´s eyes return to the forest and the argument ceases to exist in her world,her mind is elsewhere, somewhere deep inside those big,dreamy eyes.

After another 20 minutes of driving the huge fourwheel drive up to what Chiyo-chan had called a cabin once,but what really was a two-story house the size of their summer house.
The girls mope as they gaze at the building.

It´s brown with red roof tiles and white door and window frames, making it blend right in with the surroundings.
The windows are dark,hiding whatever interior inside.
The girls get out of the car and start the task of getting their baggage from the trunk.

As the other girls struggle Chiyo pulls a key out of her pocket and walks towards the frontdoor.
Tomo, however, has another idea.

Stealthily she sneaks away from the other girls,working with their luggage.

Ayumu, who has no luggage, looks at Tomo and gets the feeling that something like this has happened before.
Suddenly pictures of past days flash through her mind and the memory of Tomo tossing the key to the summerhouse away makes it´s way back into the bowels of her inner self.

I have to stop her,I don´t want to spend an hour or more outside in this cold...or do I...it is pretty beautiful,the snow is so white here and it´s really pretty.´

A quick glance at the dark forest change her mind and she acts.
She starts to run after the sneaking Tomo and reaches out with her hand.

"ah! Tomo-chan,don´t!"

Tomo doesn´t even look back , but instead she smirks as her hand is about to grasp the key and her victory.

Then three snowballs connect with her head, tosses her off balance she slams into the wall.
Chiyo acts with trained hands and before Tomo gets her wits together again she quickly unlocks and open the door.
Tomo turns and sit up, her face red from the cold snow dripping on her face along with a disappointed expression.

"I just wanted to give everybody an enjoyable memory to look back on."

Yomi looks back at Tomo with an expression that could´ve melted a pole and scare the devil.

Throwing her second snowball she says. "We already have one of those you moron, I don´t want to experience another."
Tomo easily dodges the second snowball and sends one of her own sailing towards Yomi.
Yomi dodge as well,but she´s not prepared for the following Tomo who tackles Yomi and sends the two sprawling into a pile of snow.
As the two bestfriends tumble eachother in the snow Sakaki and Kagura walks up to the body of Osaka that lies shaking in the snow.

Muffled sounds like sobs can be heard from the body.

The two rivals share a concerned glance before Sakaki bends down and touches Osaka´s shoulder.

"Hey,Osaka-san,are you alright?"

The sobs become even more violent at the sound of Sakaki´s concerned voice.
Again the two rivals look into each other´s eyes and without a word they agree.
The two of them reach down and gets and arm under Osaka to support her weight.
As they pull her up however they realise that she wasn´t crying.
Osaka´s laughing her foot off, her whole body is shaking violently, partly because of the cold,but mostly due to the laughing.
Her face is covered in snow and blood is running from her nose,but she doesn´t notice.

She´s laughing too hard.

"Ahhaahahahahahaha,hahahaha..."

"Osaka-chan,what is so funny?" Kagura asks.

"Hahaha,hehehe..oh I just remembered the last time this happened,hehehehe.Tomo-chan was right, I did look back and laugh."

Still worried about the fragile girl Kagura wipes abit of snow off her face,if only to get her attention.
Osaka flinch abit at the sudden touch, but lets Kagura complete the motion.

"You´re amazing Osaka-chan, you broke your nose and you didn´t even notice. Now how about letting us take you inside to treat that nose? I think the cold is getting to you as well,wearing those thin clothes of yours."

"Huh? I´ve broken my nose? That´s not a problem,watch."

And before either of the two can react Osaka has snaked her right arm loose,reach up to her nose and twist.
With a very audible crack the nose slips into it´s right place.
"Itai!" Osaka yells as the shock of pain surge through her.
Rubbing her nose carefully she says. "It didn´t look that painful when that guy did it on tv."

Kagura and Sakaki stare at Osaka,their mouths wide open.

"Y-you tried twisting your own nose back when you´ve never done it before?"

Osaka looked back with those big eyes, glaring like Kagura had just been surprised to find that water was wet.

"Well...yeah, it looked really easy. You just pull in a certain degree, depending on how it was broken, and with the predictable amount of force needed. Look, I´ll break your nose and show you."
Osaka began to reach for Kagura´s nose, but apparently the swimmer had other intents and stretched as far away as she could while still supporting the other girl.

"No, thank you. Instead let us get you inside before you faint or something."

"Too late." Came the reply and Osaka went limp in their hands.
Stunned the two girls look at the limp girl between them for a few seconds.
Eventually they sigh simultaneously and a "Baka" can be heard from Kagura.

They walk in the door and leave the last two girls to wrestle in the snow, but now Yomi´s cursing was replaced with laughter.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Inside Chiyo had gotten a fire running and was already preparing supper since the girls hadn´t eaten since the hospital cafeteria.
She heard the others come inside and take a seat,but she were too busy with the food to go out to them.
After a good halfhour or so she had the table set and everything looked just as it should.
Entering the living room she spotted Osaka lying on one of the couches under a blanket, Sakaki sitting next to her , cleaning her face with a wet cloth.

"What happened to Osaka-san?"

"Ah, Chiyo-chan. It´s not serious, she tripped and fell and ended up full of snow."

Before Sakaki could give Chiyo the whole story, Kagura broke in.

"Yeah, and she broke her nose, but she just reached up and twisted it right back into place. She´s hardcore!"

"She broke her nose?"

Chiyo ran over to the girl lying on the couch to look at the petite girl.

"Is she ok?"

"Yes, Chiyo-chan, she´s quite alright, she fainted outside,but she´s just sleeping now."

"She fainted!"

Chiyo didn´t seem to hear the comforting words of Sakaki and Kagura, all she could think of was the fact that they had persuaded the doctors against their will to let Osaka go so early and now she was hurt again.

She closed in on the pretty face and stared at her eyelids, praying that they would open.
She clasped her hands on either side of Osaka´s head and whispered.

"Wake up,wake up, wake up, wake up, wake u..."

Without warning Osaka shot up her eyes and said.

"Surprise."

Instantly Chiyo staggered backwards and would´ve fallen had it not been for Sakaki´s quick thinking.

Laughing Osaka sits up in the couch, eyes closed.
Suddenly the laughing stops and Osaka stares out into space.

"I wonder what muscle controls laughing."

Kagura frowned at this.
"What do you mean,muscle? You laugh when something funny happens."
Osaka´s head creepily slides to her right, her stare landing on Kagura.

"Yeah, but you can´t laugh for real unless something funny actually happens, or you remember it."

Still deadly serious Osaka tried showing them by laughing.
What came out sounded forced and fake.

"What are you trying to do Osaka-chan?"

"I am showing you that it is impossible to really fake a laugh. You try."

"Err...no, thank you, I get your point."

After alot of staring the fighting pair Tomo and Yomi come into the living room.

"Hey, people, what´s up?"

Even as it seems impossible Osaka´s neck twist even further and she´s now looking straight across her shoulder.

"We are discussing laughter."

"Err...o-k..."

The girls stare at eachother.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eventually the girls wind up around the dinner table and are left to dig in.

Chiyo´s hard efforts does not go to waste as nearly everything she prepared is eaten and compliments are thrown in her direction during the whole meal.
Even Yomi who´s usually on some sort of diet or the other decides not to ruin this opportunity, and thus digs in like a madwoman.

As the meal is finally finished the girls decide that retiring to the living room for abit of rest is a good idea.
The girls talk about old times and what fun they had during the years they had.

Osaka sits abit off to the side and listens to the conversations floating around the room.
Some of what is mentioned comes back to her,but not too much of it.
As it comes back to her she laughs and dream as if it was happening to her at that exact moment.

For the first time since she woke up does she really recognise her friends.
Looking around the table she remember events experienced with every last one of them and a few containing their two favourite teachers , Tanizaki Yukari and Kurosawa Minamo, as well.

Suddenly Tomo jumps from her spot on the couch aside Yomi and digs through one of her bags.
What she pulls out was surprising, but not unwelcome.
Out of the bag she pulls several cans of beer as well as three bottles of sake.

"Now!Lets DRINK!"

Before any the girls could grasp the situation Tomo had them playing drinking games and was herself downing sake like
only she and Yukari can.

Osaka and Chiyo stared at the glasses of sake in front of them, Sakaki ,who Chiyo had expected wouldn´t drink, was taking sips at her glass everynow and then,looking quite used to it.
Chiyo felt the moral fighting with her responisilities to her friends inside of her. Eventually she looked at Osaka who was staring at her own glass, Osaka´s stare was, however, off in dreamland.
She let her gaze wander across the other girls around the table, Tomo,Kagura and Yomi were getting tipsy and even Sakaki had a faint blush across her features.
Sighing and saying a mental "What the hell." Chiyo dived into the sin that is under-age drinking.

At first she didn´t feel a thing, instead the sake tasted unexpectedly good, but after a few seconds she felt a hearty warmth spread in her chest.
Somehow she ended up having to drink alot due to the game Tomo was leading, and after finishing her glass it was immediately refilled by a drunk Tomo.

Osaka finally got back to the present and said out loud.

"I wonder if sake has anything to do with sakura...does sakura taste like sake,or is it the other way around?"

"No,actually Osaka-san..." Chiyo began,but for some reason her brain didn´t want to cooperate so the sentence was left hanging.
"Uhh...no..."

"Oh...ok...well...kampai,Chiyo-chan!"

"Kampai,Osaka-san!"

The two lightweighters somehow drained their glasses in one go,something which left Chiyo slumped in her chair, wondering why things spun so much when she moved her head.
For Chiyo things went very fast, it was like time was sped up abit, but her senses had been dulled.
She saw, but didn´t spot. She heard, but didn´t listen. She felt,... that she had to go to the bathroom.

Sakaki had only been sipping her drink lightly and was keeping an open eye on Chiyo, who now suddenly decided to cultivate green as a colour for her face.
Sakaki didn´t waste a single second, she got up, grabbed Chiyo and ran towards the bathroom. The bobbing up and down , however, didn´t exactly help on Chiyo´s condition.

Luckily the bathroom wasn´t far and Sakaki had enough time to set Chiyo down and get out of the room before she embarrased her.

As she could hear the sounds Chiyo made Sakaki for once thought that Chiyo wasn´t very cute.

After a good ten minutes Sakaki opened the door, afterwards she wished she hadn´t. Chiyo´s head was resting on the side of the toilet and most of the bowl was covered in a reddish liquid, some of it on Chiyo herself.

"Oh, Chiyo, how could I let this happen?"

Sakaki walks over to Chiyo and pulls down the lid of the toilet, seating her on it.
After making sure she´s sitting properly Sakaki takes a towel, dips it in some hot water and begin cleaning the little girl.
A few minutes later she takes the now sleeping Chiyo in her arms and carry her upstairs to her bedroom.
Upon entry Sakaki fumbles abit around for the lightswitch,but eventually decides to risk her way in the dark.
Without too much of an effort Sakaki makes it to the bed, undresses Chiyo and gets her under the sheaths.

As she is about to withdraw Chiyo has other plans. Her small arms reach out for Sakaki as she pulls away, while Chiyo´s calling for her in a half-slumber.

"Sakaki-san..."

Looking at that cute face Sakaki couldn´t disappoint her, so Sakaki got undressed as well and went to lie next to Chiyo.
After not too long both of them fell asleep.

Meanwhile underneath the party was still going, the "serious" girl getting strangely good along with the three bonkuuras.