A/N: Wow, it's hard to keep Amane in character. She can get pretty boring how chivalrous she is. And Nagisa... I'm trying, but I really don't care much for that character as she's portrayed in the show, so I might just take her and make her my own little fanfiction-friendly creation. Man... I am so bad... I can't believe I'm writing so much gay fiction practically every fanfiction has at LEAST trace amounts, and let's not forget that two of them are centered around the problems of two lesbians (Sheena and Raine). Not only that, I'm having fun writing it! My mother would keeeeeel me if she found out. Maybe this is my teenage rebellion stage? Better than doing drugs, I suppose.

Ahem anyway. I'm trying to keep things in the style of the anime- with that first portion told from the POV of one of the characters before the episode title is shown?? I dunno I think it's fun.

OoOoOoOo

Today is the first day of the family day fair. All around you can see students celebrating with their families and friends, telling stories of days gone by...

My heart is racing. There is only one family that I'm concerned about today.

Strawberry Panic: New Year

Episode 2

"The White Princess"

Hikari smoothed out her petite white skirt with her free hand, her other hand busy seeking out Amane's to squeeze it tightly. Other, more obvious signs of her anxiety were a flushed face and a quivering body. Around them both, the Family Day Fair was running smoothly, all of the girls were working extra hard when in sight of the two most important students in all three of the schools. None of them wanted to seem like they were slacking off. If they knew that the two Etoiles couldn't have been paying any less attention, perhaps they might not have wasted their time tiring themselves.

Amane and Hikari were standing near the gates as waves of parents and visitors came walking up the road.

"What if they don't like me?" she said in a hushed whisper to the older Etoile.

Amane shifted her hand so that she could twine her fingers with that of her love. "They'll love you," she said.

"But what if they don't?" Hikari hoped her voice wasn't as shrill as it seemed to her own ears.

The bluenette smiled. "Let's not dwell on worst-case scenarios, Hikari."

Hikari let go of Amane's hand to grip at her angelic blond locks, her eyes wide. "It's not!" she said, shaking her head and blushing furiously. "It's not worst-case... it's perfectly, reasonably possible that they don't like me, or we don't get along, or I might say something really stupid like I did when I sang for you that first time in the chorus!" Hikari still felt ready to bury herself in the nearest hole every time she remembered that night. "Amane-sempai, I think I'm going to faint the second I introduce myself."

"You will not," Amane said. "They're already here." Hikari made a noise like "eek" and compulsively latched onto Amane's hand again. "Hey, hey, don't worry," the bluenette soothed, turning away from the approaching parents to lean down, planting a dry, warm kiss on the top of Hikari's head.

Hikari's first view of Amane's mother and father was of their feet. She kept her eyes down, looking at those expensive shoes, until the very last moment. Amane was introducing her, so she was forced to lift up her eyes to meet two pairs of deep, garnet orbs. Oh, so she gets that from both her parents, Hikari thought dizzily. But besides that, Amane definitely inherited most of her mother's genetics. They both had slim figures and rich blue hair, though her mother had hers long and flowing over her shoulders. She had her father's muscular grace, height, and solemn, handsome face. Hikari flushed again before bowing so low her hair hung before her face like a curtain as she introduced herself.

Then she was looking up again, waiting for whatever was to happen next.

"We've heard a lot about you, Hikari-san," the mother said. She was smiling, and Hikari took some small comfort in that.

"Where's Tohru?" Amane asked, craning her neck and standing on the tips of her toes to try and look over her tall father. "She didn't come with you?"

"She did," Amane's father said, looking uncomfortable. It was odd for Hikari to see Amane's mannerisms enacted in someone else's body. He shifted his feet and coughed, too polite to show his emotions- just like his daughter. Hikari looked from face to face, wondering what she was missing in this conversation.

"She did, huh?" Amane said, under her breath.

Hikari had a sudden, terrible thought- that this Tohru person was Amane's ex-girlfriend. She suppressed a shiver and held onto Amane's hand all the tighter.

"Tohru decided to explore the campus," Amane's mother broke in. She paused for a moment before adding, "Since... we're transferring her here."

OoOoOoOo

"Chikaru-sempaiiiii!" Remon and Kizuna burst into the Lulim club room and struck the "victory" pose, holding up the middle and index fingers to form a "v".

"We've done it!" Kizuna squealed, prancing around the room arm-in-arm with her best friend, gloriously rising up a handful of photographs. "We've completed the assignment!"

Chikaru reclined in her plush chair, red-lacquered fingernails tapping out a steady rhythm on her desk. The Lulim student council president gave her two favorite underclassmen a friendly, yet unrevealing smile.

"Oh?" she said, grinning at them both.

"Yeah!" Remon rushed up to the desk, brandishing her photos like a weapon. "Here we have upperclassman Yaya and second-year Tsubomi competing in one of the fair booths for a stuffed animal- a friendly rivalry born out of mutual respect, and an unrequited love for a certain blond Etoile!"

Kizuna leapt over her friend, pushing her back with one hand while she shoved another set of photos. "Little Kagome-chan walking hand-in-hand with her young brother who's barely old enough to walk on his own- sisterly love!"

Remon, caught up in the moment, pulled a few stacks of paper out of her bag. "We also have evidence of long-distance love- photocopies of the letters you wrote to R-"

Kizuna swiped the papers out of her partner-in-crime's hand and knocked her aside. "Ahahhaa, what Remon MEANS is Nagisa's letters SHE wrote to SHIZUMA." She glared at Remon. "Right?"

Chikaru hid a smile behind one hand. "You mean letters from myself written to Rokujou-san. No need to be bashful about it- you're reporters... But you should know, Miyuki and I are only friends. She is engaged to be married next spring, after all."

Remon struggled to her feet and elbowed Kizuna aside, bunches of photos in either hand as she laughed nervously and tried to change the subject. "Uh, ah, hehe, yeah, right...Look! Look! The rumors were wrong- you've heard those rumors about how that fifth-year Aiko was cheating on third-year Kanako?"

"-And how there was that big fight about it?" Kizuna added.

"-So we did some digging and solved the whole mystery by ourselves!" Remon continued. "It was all a big misunderstanding, but isn't that how it always is?"

"And then..."

Kizuna and Remon looked at each other with matching grins of excitement, two photos held between their trembling hands. Chikaru sat up straight in her chair at the sudden tension in the room, her eyes fixed on the photos.

"What?" she asked. "Is it something good?"

"It's the mother-lode," they said and, bowing as one, they presented the photos to their club leader.

OoOoOoOo

"Finally, a little privacy!" exclaimed Shizuma, locking the door and rolling her eyes. She stretched languidly, yawning once. "I spend the entire day traveling only to be pestered by the kohai. Ohhh, I'd forgotten what it was like to be at this school, and it didn't help that your friends the Etoiles decided to change everything around." She sighed once before shooting Nagisa a smile.

Nagisa returned it, her heart fluttering as she stood by the door and watched the silver-haired woman walk around the room, examining the little nick-knacks Nagisa kept on her desk and talking about her trip, and how college life was suiting her even though she missed the simplicity of not having to pick out a different outfit every day. Nagisa thought she looked very good out of uniform, but didn't want to say so. So instead she sat on the edge of her bed, listening raptly to every word Shizuma spoke about her quirky professors and new friends. A whole new life she had made outside of the school...

"Well, hello," Shizuma said at one point, turning around to show Nagisa a lacy black bit of nothing. "I don't seem to recall this the last time I was in your room, Nagisa-chan..."

Nagisa shot up from her bed, her face bright scarlet. "Shizuma!" she accused. "You're going through my things?"

Shizuma ignored her, holding the lingerie up to the light. "How come you never wore this for me?" she said, pouting at Nagisa.

"That's... that's... that's, that's..." Nagisa seemed ready to spontaneously combust. "I'm not- it's not like that I-"

Shizuma's smile only grew wider. "Ohh, I get it. You were saving this for when I came back? You wanted to do something special to celebrate, hmm?"

"Ooooh, stop teasing me!" Nagisa squealed, stomping out a frantic, angry beat. "You come back after a year and- and I've missed you and- but you're not taking me seriously- and that is my underwear!" she leapt forward, trying to snatch it away.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Shizuma said, holding the panties behind her while fending off the red head with her other arm. She wiggled her finger from side to side. "No, no, no! You have to ask me politely, darling. Or..." she cocked her head to the side. "You could let me keep them."

"They're not your size," Nagisa said, stubbornly reaching for the undies.

"Who said I was going to wear them? I'm starting a collection. It's a-" Shizuma had to scamper away as Nagisa made a mad dash along the room, grabbing blindly. "It's a game. Grab as many panties as you can, but don't touch any boys, they have cooties. Wow, you're-" Shizuma twirled out of Nagisa's reach again, smiling benignly. "-Fast. God, I'd forgotten how cute you get when you're upset. Am I pushing your buttons, Nagisa-chan?" she dropped the underwear, her impromptu game forgotten as she smiled, almost shyly, at her girlfriend. Then she grew solemn, almost as solemn as she was in those first few months when they were still strangers. "I don't like it," she blurted out suddenly. "I don't like to think that I'd forgotten anything about you."

Nagisa cleared her throat, picking up the underwear and putting them away in her drawers on the other side of the room. "Yeah," she agreed softly. "Yeah, it bothers me too."

After that there was an awkward silence, broken only by the faint sounds of the family day fair going on far away. For a few moments, they were strangers again, strangers in an empty room. For a few moments, there was only that- a year's worth of silence spanning the time it took for Nagisa to gather her courage and walk across the room and slip her hand into Shizuma's.

"I still love you, though. I... haven't forgotten that."

"I know." Shizuma squeezed her hand. "I love you, too. Do you want to go to the fair with me? Or I could treat you to something at the cafe or... or we could leave the school grounds for a while and go on a real date. Anything at all, as long as it's with you. Sorry for teasing you," she added, almost as an afterthought.

Nagisa smiled. "It's all right. Let's go to the fair?"

Shizuma nodded.

OoOoOoOo

"Ugh! Tsubomi, what the hell did I tell you? Now my T-shirt is all wet again!"

Yaya stomped alongside the wholly uncaring second-year, who toted an oversized water gun propped up against her shoulder. She shrugged. "Well, Yaya-sempai, it's really not my fault if you're careless enough to just waltz in front of the gun like that while I was shooting. You had better go change before you catch a cold- I will not be responsible if your singing voice is forever ruined." She shrugged out of her cream colored jacket and dangled it in front of Yaya.

"You were aiming at me and you know it. Here-" she rejected the offered jacket and snatched the gun away from the girl. "Let me take that from you before you subject someone else to your pervy ways."

Tsubomi stopped in her tracks, her cheeks burning red. "How dare you insinuate that I-"

"I ain't insinuating anything. It's not enough to see me get dropped into a huge tub of water every time some punk throws a ball and hits the target, you gotta get me drenched on my time off!" Yaya held the water rifle securely away from Tsubomi. "So that's why I get to do this." She hefted up the rifle and took aim.

"Do wh-shpppllub!"

Amane and Hikari walked into the scene just as the soaking wet Tsubomi was in the middle of screaming obscenities at a grinning Yaya.

"Oh, it looks like you two are having fun," Hikari said, beaming at her two friends and clapping her hands together joyfully.

"Fun? Fun?!" Tsubomi sputtered. "Etoile-sama, you-"

"-Are absolutely right!" Yaya continued for her, pulling her close in a one-armed hug. "Yeah, we have a blast together. Tell Hikari-chan how much fun we have, Tsubomi-chan!"

Tsubomi felt the barrel of the water rifle pressing into her back.

"...Loads," she said with the enthusiasm of a cadaver.

"Well, we were wondering if you could help us," Amane said, one hand possessively resting on Hikari's shoulder. As usual, the bluenette seemed not entirely at ease when around the other Etoile's room mate.

"Oh really?" Yaya said. "Will we be exempted from our duties at the family fair if we help? Ehhhh, Hikari-chaaaan?" Ignoring Amane's death grip on the girl, she dropped the water rifle and pulled the blonde into another one-armed hug. "Eh? Eh? C'mon, whaddaya say, Etoile-sama?"

Hikari put her hands on her hips. "You don't get special favors because you're my friend, Yaya-chan," the Etoile said, though the impact of the speech was lessened by the fact that she was blushing. "I have to treat all the students equally."

Amane cleared her throat.

"Oh!" Hikari said, pulling away from Yaya. "Right, right. Um, have you two seen a girl about, um... I'd say a half-a-head taller than Yaya-chan?"

"Quite a few," Tsubomi said.

Hikari shook her head. "No, but she has blue hair, kind of like Amane's, and red eyes. Like Amane," she added, in case there was any doubt that she meant red eyes, like Tamao's.

"So you're looking for a shorter Otori-san?" Yaya asked, raising one incredulous eyebrow.

"If only she were that simple," Amane huffed, one hand to her forehead to contain a throbbing headache. "She's my little sister, and she wants to transfer to Miator."

Tsubomi and Yaya, for once, were in complete agreement- they stared at Amane, open-mouthed an in shock.

"Who in their right mind would want to go to Miator?" Tsubomi shrieked.

"And since when did you have a little sister?" Yaya waved her arms at Hikari. "Hikari-chan is your girlfriend, and she's my best friend, and she tells me everything, and I've never heard of any sister!"

"I don't like to talk about my family. You two should change clothes before you catch cold," Amane said, grabbing Hikari's hand and walking away, unusually curt behavior for the white "Prince" of Spica.

"Well whoa whoa whoa! Hold up, I'm gonna help, Hikari-chan!" Yaya said, scooping up the water rifle and tossing it to Tsubomi with a careless, "Here, hold onto this," before running off after the pair.

Tsubomi, left behind in the rush, held out one hand feebly in the direction that the three had gone before being swallowed up in the crowd. "I want to... help... Hikari... too.." she said, her tough facade broken in face of her true timidity. She sighed, once, before turning to go back to the fair. She had left her family to wander the fair on their own since she had duty at the carnival game booths, but now that she had some free time she might as well go find them. Even if she had planned to spend her free time with Yaya, whom she only ever really got to see at choir and the weekly midnight parties...

She was so lost in her thoughts, she paid no attention to the real world until it slammed into her- literally. Tsubomi let out a shriek and toppled over to land on another girl- not a student here, as her blazing red VISITOR sticker and non-uniform clothes plainly said.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow..." she said, quickly getting up and holding out her hand to the girl. "I'm sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going..."

The girl accepted the hand, pushing round sunglasses up the bridge of her nose. "It's all right, I wasn't hurt," she said. She moved to leave, but then her eyebrows shot up and she reached out to hold Tsubomi's hands in a pleading gesture. "Oh, wait do you go to school here? You're a..." Tsubomi blushed as she felt herself being scrutinized from behind dark lenses. "Spica student, right? Do you know where the library is?"

Does the sun rise in the east? Tsubomi thought. All the students knew where the library was- it was generally where couples went when they needed a dark, quiet place where no one could find them. More than once she had entertained fantasies of one day going there with someone special... like Hikari. She thought it would be fun- the risk of being caught made her heart beat faster. Not that she would ever tell anyone.

"Of course I do," Tsubomi said, more calmly than she felt. She pointed the girl in the right direction. "That's where you want to go- uh..." she realized she didn't know the girl's name.

"Please, call me Tohru," she said.

Tsubomi found herself smiling. "OK. You can call me Tsubomi, Tohru-chan." They shook hands, smiling warmly at each other. "And- ah, well, I could take you to the library, if you would just wait until I change into some dry clothes." She laughed. "I got into a sort of water gun fight."

"Certainly." Tohru was polite, and very beautiful- Tsubomi liked her on the spot, and wondered what family she had here at the Strawberry Dorms.

When Tsubomi came back in fresh clothes they set off, chatting as if they had been friends for life. "So what do you need to go to the library for, Tohru-chan? All the fairs' activities are near the dorms."

"I know," Tohru said, making a face. "All this noise and commotion bothers me, and I'm sort of trying to scope out the entirety of the campus by myself. My parent's suggested transferring here, but..." Tohru fell quiet. "Well, I guess I'm just not sure of the idea of an all-girls school. On one hand it's a good way for me to meet other girls my age- to be honest, the girls at my old school all sort of hate me!" she laughed, humorlessly. "The boys, too."

"And on the other hand?" Tsubomi asked, looking up at her curiously, though on the inside she was dancing with joy. Ohmigoshmigosh, I'm making friends with this beautiful girl who might go to school here and we get along so great and we're going to the library ok sure she doesn't know what that means but ohmigosh! This is too good to be true!

It was.

OoOoOoOo

And this is just a lil update from me to let ya'll know I'm alive.

Remon: Contrary to popular belief, we didn't take any pictures of Shizuma and Nagisa besides the one of the kiss.

Kizuna: Besides, they weren't doing anything juicy behind locked doors- just quietly celebrating their reunion! But what are they going to do when Shizuma has to go back to college?

Remon: I'm wondering that myself, Kizuna-chan.

Kizuna: What' I'm wondering is when are we gonna show those photos to the whole world!

Remon: And who is this new girl, Tohru? Is she...Amane's...?

Kizuna and Remon: Next time on Strawberry Panic: New Year! Incriminating Photos!

Remon: I can't wait!