A/N: Okay guys, I'm really really sorry about the late update. At the end of chapter 2 of was having to force myself to finish it because I was having some major writer's block. I didn't want to force this chapter too just because I wanted to get it out for you guys. I wanted to make it a good chapter, even if it meant waiting a bit lol. Anyway, I hope you guys like it! Review for me so I know what to fix and what to focus on! :D
A first year with short brown hair bobbed along behind her friends warily. They had just finished eating lunch, and all of them needed to study due to the upcoming midterms. "Hanai, didn't you and Tsubomi study the other day? How far did you get in the study guide?" One of the girls pulled the brunette out of her daydreams. She snapped her head up quickly, finding the other four girls amusingly staring at her.
"Well, I was the one mainly studying. Tsubomi was just ranting and killing time so she didn't have to see that other girl." The girls suddenly stopped her, interest dripping from every pore in their faces.
"What girl? Did she have a fight with someone?" The same girl prodded inquisitively.
"I don't really know. When I found her that day, an upperclassman had her arms around her and resting her chin on her shoulder. But when I asked who she was, Tsubomi freaked out saying she was just annoying and needed to learn to keep her hands to herself. I don't know if you would consider that fighting or not, but…"
"Well who was the girl?!" Another girl jumped in quickly. Tsubomi had taken almost all year to make friends with the five of them, and showed no interest in anyone else. The fact that an upperclassman was showing her attention was news to them.
"I really don't know. I've never seen her before, but that isn't saying much. Almost the entire year I've been stuck doing errands for some of the Head Mistresses. I don't notice many people these days." They all giggled at her ditzy moment. "Oh! There's Tsubomi. Hey! That's the girl she was with the other day!" She had noticed the pin haired girl further down the path toward the library. Every head snapped around to look for the couple.
"That's Yaya Nanto!" One of the girls jumped up and down excitedly. "She's second chair in Spica's choir! Not to mention gorgeous!" The girls scampered over to greet their friend, hoping to get noticed by the older girl.
"Your logic is ridiculous! If you keep this up you'll fail all of your tests! I'm not your babysitter! I won't take care of you anymore! Fail for all I care!" Tsubomi didn't notice when the group walked up to them, and neither did Yaya.
"Aw, you won't take care of me? But then who will help you mold your voice? Hikari said you wanted my tutoring." The older girl smirked and winked cutely at her younger friend. A deep blush formed on Tsubomi's face when the realization of Hikari's big mouth struck her.
"Why would I want that?! Yaya sounds like a dying cat when she sings!" Yaya puffed up, stepping as close to the younger girl as she could manage. Tsubomi had to watch her balance because of the dizzying effect the close proximity had on her mental state.
"If I sound so bad then why do you listen?" Her mouth fell back into her signature smirk teasingly. "Or is my singing just an excuse for you to be around me?" The pink haired girl reeled back in shock, making Yaya throw her head back in laughter. She quickly grabbed the girl around the waist before she could escape. She couldn't manage to stifle her chuckles, though she tried. "You know you can't let go of me. If you could, you would have left when Hikari became Etoile."
"Baka! Let go of me!" Tsubomi struggled relentlessly against the warm embrace she had grown accustom to. "Baka baka baka!"
"Excuse me?" The two girls jumped in surprise, now seeing the group of first years watching. Hanai looked apologetically at Tsubomi for scaring her.
The pink haired girl remembered the third year's arms around her waist when they tightened greatly at the sight of Hanai. "Yaya! Let go of me! Now! Yaya stop it!" She managed to pull loose of the grasping arms, jumping far out of reach. "Leave me alone! Baka!" She stepped back over next to Hanai, folding her arms over her chest in anger.
Yaya looked stunned by her outburst. Had she gone too far? "Fine. Go be with your friends. Doesn't make a difference to me if you're around or not. You're just a dumb first year anyway." Tsubomi felt tears prick at the back of her eyelids. Yaya was serious. She wasn't smirking or smiling at all. She really was mad at her. It wasn't like she meant what she said, it just came out before she could stop herself. Yaya should know that. She said stuff like that all the time, but it had never upset her before. Why was she getting mad at her? She never got mad about anything Tsubomi said. She normally would have a snide remark to counter anything like that. "Whatever. Have fun with Hanai." Yaya turned on her heels elegantly, gliding down the path toward the dorms with haste.
Tsubomi and her friends spent the next few hours studying for midterms, but she couldn't really concentrate like the rest of them. Everything was eating away at her. She even caught a few tears fall before she noticed, but thankfully no one else seemed to glimpse them. A buzzing noise startled everyone around their small table. Tsubomi excused herself and ran outside to answer her phone before it stopped ringing.
"Tsubomi! Hey, you're coming home for the holiday break after midterms right? Mom and Dad really want you to. I do too of course! But they just wanted me to make sure. You get a week off right? More than enough incentive to come home for the holidays, don't you agree?" Tsubomi's sister energetically tried to coax her sister through the phone.
"Chika, I wasn't really planning on it. I would just end up missing home more if I came back now." She sat down on a bench by the entrance of the library.
"Then bring someone with you, like a friend. That way its home, but with a little Astrea thrown in. Sound good?" Chika giggled quietly, roughly muffled. More than likely her boyfriend was over.
"I'll see what I can do. I have to go study now. If I don't pass my finals, I won't be able to come home anyway. And I really don't want to do make-up courses over break." She said goodbye and quickly scampered back inside. "Who could I bring home with me? More importantly, who would I want to bring home with me?"
"Who was that?" Hanai looked up from her study guide curiously. She always showed interest in what Tsubomi was doing or what she thought about something. She would listen to rant after rant, never growing bored of the heated speech.
"Uh, my sister. Her and my parents are wanting me to come home for break. They want me to bring a friend too." Hanai didn't seem to pick up on the invitation, or if she did she didn't let on.
"Aw, I bet that will be fun. My family is going on vacation as soon as I'm finished testing." Tsubomi sighed in defeat. Maybe she could ask Hikari, though she doubted the blonde would be able to go with her.
It didn't take much searching before she found the beautiful blonde in the student council room doing paperwork. "Hello Tsubomi." Hikari's innocent smile wavered slightly at the sight of the irritated girl. "Is something wrong?" She pulled out a chair for her younger friend and pushed her papers to the side.
"What are you doing over break?"
"Mostly paperwork like normal. Why?"
"My parents want me to come home for break. But I'm supposed to bring a friend."
"Oh, I see. Being Etoile prevents me from leaving during break, or I would accept the offer. I'm sorry. Have you asked Yaya?" Hikari stifled her giggles when Tsubomi scrunched up her face in discomfort.
"Why would I bring Yaya? Besides, I doubt she wants to be around me anyway." The pink head tried not to let her face fall, but the pain didn't escape Hikari's prodding eyes.
"I heard about your argument earlier. That wouldn't stop her from going with you. Besides, I figure she would be happy to get away from Astrea for a while."
"Why would that make her happy? She only has a few months until summer break. She can leave then can't she?"
"Yes, but unless she comes home with me she doesn't get to leave. Her parents live overseas after all, and they can't afford to have her fly over for the summer. She hasn't been home or since her parents in two years. The past two summers she's came to live with my family and me." Tsubomi's eyes grew wide in shock. No wonder Yaya was acting weird on parent's day last week. Yaya never got to see her parents.
"I guess…" She pushed her pride to the side. She wanted to take Yaya with her, and from what Hikari said it wouldn't be hard to convince her. "I guess I'll take Yaya then. Thanks Hikari. Do you know where she is? I need to go ask her."
"I think she's in our room. She was headed that way when I saw her." Tsubomi nodded a thank you and hurried off to find the older girl.
After a few minutes of knocking on the door, she finally opened it and stepped into a room shrouded in darkness. "Yaya? Are you in here?" She carefully picked her way through the room, stopping next to a bed against one of the walls. She flipped on the lamp sitting on the neighboring desk, receiving a groan from a cocoon of blankets bunched up on the bed. With a heavy sigh, she nudged the blankets repeatedly. "Yaya. Wake up." A tiny opening formed in the head of the blankets, revealing squinting eyes scanning for the girl.
"What?"
"Wake up. You don't need to be sleeping this early in the day. You'll be up all night. Get up." She poked the side of the blanket pile once more, granting her yet another mumbled groan. Finally, the blankets uncoiled from the older girl as she stood up next to her younger friend.
"Why do I have to get up? I don't have tests tomorrow unlike the first years. I'm finished with mine." She finally noticed the extreme blush covering all of Tsubomi's face. Her deep scarlet features petrified at the sight of the brunette.
"Y-Yaya! Put some clothes on!" The pink head covered her red face with her trembling hands in embarrassment.
"Oh?" Yaya looked down, remembering not having any clean night pants when she changed. "I have underwear on you know. Its not like I'm naked." She shrugged, but grabbed a pair of short out of her drawer to settle the underclassman's mind. "Better?"
"Yes! What would have happened if it had been someone else?! Did you ever think of that?! Your door wasn't even locked! Baka!"
"Geez, calm down pipsqueak. Its not that big of a deal. Its too early to be bickering." She rubbed her eyes sleepily, debating whether or not to crawl back into bed.
"Sorry. I didn't come here to yell at you. I was wondering if you wanted to come home with me over break…" Tsubomi turned her face away trying desperately to hide her blush, but it didn't seem to matter.
"Why would I do that? And why are you here? You told me to leave you alone, remember?" She didn't care about the death glare she received from the younger girl. She was still upset about earlier.
"I didn't figure you would want to. I was going to ask Hanai to come, but her family already has plans."
"Why would you ask her?! I'm obviously the better choice in the deal!" Instinctively, Yaya closed the distance between them and wrapped her arms around Tsubomi's shoulders. "I bet you wouldn't have as much fun with Hanai anyway." The younger girl didn't fight it like usual, but she still felt uneasy. Yaya's cleavage was dangerously close to her face, and the smell of her shampoo surrounded her by waves of hair that engulfed her. It was an intoxicating smell that she would never get tired of.
"Fine, I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon. My last test should be over around noon. Be ready by then." Regretfully, Tsubomi managed to gently push the older girl away from her. "I'm going to go start packing now. Goodnight Yaya. Come to my room around 1:00 tomorrow. I should be back by then." The pink head ran off, barely able to contain her excitement. Yaya was actually coming to stay with her for a week. No one else, just her. She felt sick to her stomach from nerves, but still all the more happy that Yaya was the one to say yes.