A/N: This is the second-to-last chapter of New Year, but who knows? Maybe when I have more free time… I'll write a sequel! One more chapter after this one, peepz. Enjoy.

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Strawberry Panic: New Year

Episode Five

"The Threesome Debate"

That insufferable whore Shizuma has returned to disturb my peace of mind once more. I had thought when she moved off to college she would find some other girl to smother with her unwanted affections, but no. She seems still to be dead-set on taking away the only girl I could ever want: Nagisa Aoi. By now of course my feelings are in the air. Open. No longer is it a carefully guarded secret hidden by the veil of "Best Friends." That was what had made me lose last time- shyly keeping my feelings to myself, not wanting to burden Nagisa with that sort of drama. All the while, there was Shizuma groping her in public or wooing her in the comfort of her own house. And somehow, Nagisa fell for it.

I had let her go because she wanted to go. But that wasn't the end of it, you see. I know the value of waiting. When Nagisa decides she wants to come back, I'll let her because it's her that wants to do so, not because I dramatically swept her off her feet and gave her no other choice. The door is still open, Nagisa. It'll always be open.

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"Can someone please tell me why she's still here?"

Tamao gripped her lunch tray tightly, so tight her knuckles stood out sharp against her skin. Yaya patted her on the shoulder consolingly, and Hikari shuffled her feet. Tsubomi shrugged, a carton of low fat milk in one hand. She rarely ate lunch at the cafeteria anymore, sticking to a new diet. Jabbing a straw into the carton, she sipped for a moment, watching Nagisa and Shizuma at their own table being lovey-dovey.

"Well," she said after a long moment of this, "They are girlfriends. It's only to be expected."

"Damn you and your logic," Tamao said in response, taking halting steps towards their normal table while unable to tear her eyes away from Nagisa and Shizuma. "Still though. Family Day was ages ago! Doesn't Shizuma have college to attend to? Why is she being so irresponsible and-"

"-and re-capturing Nagisa's heart while you're left in the shadows again?" Yaya finished, mouth full of French fries. She munched as she spoke. "Really, girl, you gotta- nyum, nyum- get over Nagisa-chan already and- om, om, om- get laid or something." She paused to swallow. "Cause we're getting tired of your constant emo bullshit."

"Yaya-chan!" Hikari's voice raised a few pitches in horror. "Don't listen to her, Tamao-chan! We understand how you feel…We really do."

"We just don't know why you're still holding on," Tsubomi said, discarding her milk carton. "I mean, even Yaya gave up on Hikari-sama already."

"Tsubomi-chan!" cornered on both sides by oppositions to her constant upbeat attitude, Hikari's cheeks turned bright scarlet. "Both of you, behave!"

"Yes, Etoile-sama," they intoned, sticking out their tongues at her.

"What they're trying to say, Tamao-chan…" Hikari placed a hesitant hand on the bluenette's shoulder. "Is you shouldn't let it get to you."

"…It doesn't matter." Forcing herself to smile, Tamao rolled her shoulders in a shrug. "Let's just eat lunch. Does anyone have their French notes on them? I'm having a little trouble with my assignment." Effectively changing the subject, the bluenette led the way to their normal table, not too far from where Shizuma was engaged in loud conversation with her young girlfriend.

"Oh hey! Tamao-chan!"

And now said girlfriend waved at her, beckoning the group over to their table. "Come and eat lunch with us! We're feeling lonely!" Though Shizuma seemed a bit off-put, she made no comment as Tamao rapidly zipped over to the table, casually resting her tray in the seat between the two other girls. Effectively cutting Shizuma off from Nagisa, the bluenette smiled at her room mate.

"Nagisa-chan, you don't happen to have your French notes handy, do you?" she asked, her back turned on Shizuma.

"Huh? Actually, I do. They're right here in my bag. Do you need help, Tamao-chan?"

"Help would be most appreciated."

The other three girls sat down at the table with matching expressions of exasperation. Shizuma rolled her eyes heavenward when she realized she wasn't the only one who noticed Tamao's overt, hostile behavior. Hikari frowned, Tsubomi shrugged again, and Yaya merely cocked one eyebrow up and said, "Hey there, Shiz. What's up?"

"…Not much, Nanto-san." Shizuma, perhaps irked at how casual Yaya always was, bit her lower lip. "But it's been far from boring. I'm still on break, so I can come here every day from my house nearby to visit the campus."

"And me!" Nagisa said, breaking away from her private French discussion with Tamao to smile with eyes gooey and full of adoration.

"And you." Reaching over Tamao's shoulder, Shizuma trailed her hands over Nagisa's round cheeks in a loving gesture. She quite purposefully smacked Tamao on her way back. Tamao's eyebrow twitched but she managed to keep her composure, which was saying something.

Yaya sat back in her seat, kicked her feet up onto the table, and smiled with her milk straw in her mouth. She chewed on in thoughtfully as more polite banter struck up around the table. All around the round table the tense atmosphere began to slowly drain away and soon it was as if nothing were amiss. After about fifteen minutes, Amane and her young sister Tohru even joined, though Tohru sat as far as possible from Tsubomi as politely possible. Tamao and Nagisa finished their French homework together and joined in the conversation, waving their hands animatedly and laughing like best friends should.

But no one could ignore the death glares the bluenette and the silver-haired one shot each other whenever they thought no one would notice. Yaya, finally tired of it, spat out her straw and sat forward in her seat again, eyes shining maliciously.

"You know what?" she said, one arm around Hikari's shoulder. "I just thought of something Nagisa might find interesting."

Nagisa blinked and tilted her head to the side in confusion while the other two gripped the edge of the table, wary at whatever plan Yaya had concocted because she was bored. "Now, we all know you aren't the best of friends. To put it mildly, you're always at each other's throat over one thing or another when we all know you're really arguing about Nagisa."

"Yaya-chan…" Hikari started, voice low, but Yaya squeezed her against her side, silencing her.

"So I came up with a great solution."

"Nanto-san…" Shizuma began to get out of her seat.

"You guys should have a threesome."

Tsubomi wordlessly placed her hands over her face, shaking her head in disbelief.

"It's an easy solution to all your problems."

Amane and Tohru ate their lunches. Amane asked if her sister could pass the salt and the younger Ohtori obeyed, the very picture of duty and honor rolled up into one petite frame. Amane thanked her, red eyes vacant as she gazed out the cafeteria window to admire the beautiful afternoon outside with one hand on top of Hikari's under the table.

"The only solution, really. You both get Nagisa, and Nagisa gets the ride of her life. And if you guys make a video I wouldn't mind a copy for my own personal enjoyment, if ya know what I mean."

For once, Shizuma and Tamao, neither of them idiots, were struck dumb. The two girls looked at each other, ashen-faced, as unwelcome mental images began to run through their minds. As one, they pushed their lunch trays away and excused themselves from the table, each of them headed for opposite sides of the cafeteria to find separate restrooms.

"Looks like they don't approve," a voice mused. The group turned to see Chikaru standing with her own tray in hand, smirking. She sat down at their table, spearing a forkful of salad from her plate. "Mind if I join you ladies?"

"I don't understand," Nagisa said instead of answering, chin in her hand and forehead creased in a frown. "What's a threesome?"

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"You."

Tamao froze, in the middle of the courtyard, wiping at her mouth with a washcloth and wondering if her face was as green as she felt. Shizuma stood on the opposite side, dabbing at the corner of her lips with a kerchief and looking a little unsteady on her feet. The two girls glared at each other with narrowed eyes, tensing for an all-out brawl.

"You are the last person I want to see right now, Hanazono. Don't act as if I followed you."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you did, you little freak."

Tamao's hands clenched at her washcloth without her telling them to. "Whore," she spat.

Shizuma's lips curled up into a humorless smirk. "Nagisa doesn't seem to mind. Actually, she kinda likes it."

"Somehow I doubt Nagisa likes the idea of you having slept with just about every girl on campus."

"Including you?" Shizuma quipped, but under her breath. There was no one around but them, since most of the students were in the library or the cafeteria at lunch hour. "She never did say no to the whole threesome idea, and they do say when you sleep with someone you've slept with everyone they've done before. Hey wait!" She made a fist with one hand, slamming it into the palm of her other hand as a sudden idea came to her. "So in a roundabout way… you banged Nagisa! You should be thanking me, dear."

Tamao grit her teeth. "That was a long time ago. And it only further deepens my conviction that you're a horrible person and you don't deserve Nagisa-chan."

Shizuma shrugged, lips pressed thinly together. "Whatever you say. I love her. No insult you throw at me is ever going to change that."

"I love her, too. And no amount of time is ever going to lessen it."

"Keep on thinking that. In the meantime, I have more important things to do than waste my time with you."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Shizuma thrust up her middle finger as she walked past Tamao to the lunch room, and Tamao merely stood there with her head held high and her blue eyes blazing with righteous anger.

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"Seriously though, what's a threesome?"

Chikaru patted the girl on her head, smiling a maternal smile. "If you don't know by this age, dear, it's probably best if I don't tell you."

"Yeah. Yaya-sempai was just being an idiot." Tsubomi made a noise of disgust in her throat.

"Hey, they stopped fighting, didn't they? Sure it was to go spew chunks, but…"

"That wasn't very nice, Yaya-chan," Hikari said, sadly looking down at her untouched meal.

"Funny as hell, though."

"Lunch is always so amusing with you around, Nanto-san," Tohru said with a demure smile. Yaya beamed at the compliment, shooting a smug smirk in Tsubomi's direction.

"Yeah, well…" Tsubomi got to her feet, face aflame. "Whatever. I'm gonna go get ready for my next class!" without a word of farewell, she left the cafeteria in a grand huff… which was an almost everyday occurrence so no one paid much attention.

"Rather high strung, isn't she?" Tohru speculated.

"She's just a little…" Yaya nodded her head from side to side, mouth twisted as she wracked her mind for a proper adjective. "Uptight sometimes."

"Yes, tightly wound. " Amane nodded, still holding Hikari's hand under the table.

Yaya's face brightened up again and she grinned wickedly around the table. "Wait wait wait a minute. Is it just me, or was each of those statements an innuendo for bondage?"

"It was just you," the table monotoned, already tired of her antics for one day. They got up as one and left the table, carrying their trays off to toss out anything they didn't eat. Yaya was left at the table with her arms out in an entreating gesture before she sat back in her chair with her arms crossed to sulk.

"No sense of humor," she muttered.

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Leave. Leave. Leave. Just leave me alone already. Go back home and never come back here again!

"I don't often see you praying, Tamao-chan."

Tamao jerked upright, knocking her head against the lamp on her desk as she sat up straight. The bluenette turned to her room mate, rubbing the back of her injured noggin with a wounded expression. "Ah.. I wasn't praying," she said, which was almost the truth. "I was just thinking really hard about something."

"Ohh." The red head nodded wisely, her pillow clutched tightly to her chest in an innocent, girly pose. She was sitting on her bunk, peering over the top of the feather pillow at Tamao. "OK, then. Don't think too hard, though. You're gonna get wrinkles if you keep up with that angry expression you had a moment ago."

"I looked angry?" She had thought that her emotions weren't betrayed by her face that often.

"Yeah or… I dunno. Intense. Is something wrong?" Getting off her bed, Nagisa set the pillow aside and perched herself on the edge of Tamao's desk, dark eyes shimmering with worry. "You know you can tell me anything."

"It's nothing, Nagisa-chan. I'm just tired." Pencil in hand, Tamao tried to concentrate on the homework in front of her but her mind kept on returning to the silver-haired woman on the campus. Nothing would make her happier than for that whore Shizuma to just leave her in peace. She'd robbed her of virginity and her true love Nagisa. Tamao would be damned before she let Shizuma steal her sanity as well.

"Then go to sleep." Ever the voice of reason, that Nagisa.

"Not that tired."

"Then don't go to sleep?" Nagisa smiled sheepishly.

"Sounds like a plan. Need any help with Algebra?"

"Nope. I got it all down, I think. Need help with French?"

Tamao laughed. "It's so strange. That used to be your worst subject, and look at you now. No, I don't need any help, Nagisa-chan. Thank you."

"Well…" she let her legs dangle from the desk, her hands on her knees as her feet swung back and forth. A pleased smile was on her face, and her gaze seemed distant. "Shizuma really made me like it. I dunno, after she started teaching me more, I started to see a lot of things I liked about it that I didn't notice before. It's such a pretty language."

"Yeah." Visibly deflating at the mention of Shizuma, Tamao gripped her pencil tightly. "Sure is pretty, all right."

"Welllll…" Nimbly hopping off the desk, Nagisa flounced back down onto her bunk. "If you're gonna be up all night studying, keep the lights on as bright as you need. They don't bother me. I'm gonna go to sleep."

"I won't be up long," Tamao promised, closing her text books. "You know what? I'll just go to bed now. These formulas aren't due till Wednesday anyway." Shutting off the lights, she clambered into her own bed, yawning hugely. "G'night, Nagisa-ch…."

She blinked in surprise when Nagisa hopped into her bed, quickly making herself comfortable under the covers. Wrapping her arms around Tamao's waist, the red head resting her forehead in the space between Tamao's chin and shoulders. "I feel like I've been ignoring you, Tamao-chan," she said against Tamao's neck. Carefully, the bluenette put her own hands around her room mate, holding her securely against her own frame. "Ever since Shizuma's been here, I've been a bad friend, haven't I?"

"Of course not." Tamao pressed her nose against soft flowery smelling hair.

"I have, though. I just… don't want you to think I don't love you anymore."

"You're overreacting, Nagisa-chan," Tamao chided her gently. After a carefully maintained silence, she added. "…been a while since we've slept together, though…"

"You wanna?"

"I'd love to."

"…OK." And without further ado, Nagisa closed her eyes and was promptly snoring against Tamao's chest. Tamao took a while longer to fall asleep, quietly memorizing the feel of Nagisa in her arms, wishing the love Nagisa had for her was as more than just a friend.

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"Have you noticed something strange about that new girl?"

Tsubomi looked up from her books, not quite sure why her heart was beating so fast. It was almost dark outside, and Yaya was lounging in the library with her, not really doing anything but glad for the company since Hikari and Amane had excused themselves to go find a more… "secluded" area of the library to "study" long ago. Carefully chewing her words before spitting them out, she said:

"No."

Genius, girl. Genius.

Yaya was leaning against a bookshelf, frowning in thought with an unopened book in her hand. She swung it back and forth, her long dark hair forming a curtain around her face as she stared up at the ceiling. "The other day I overheard Ohtori-sempai talking to the physical education teacher, telling her how Tohru can't swim or something. It was just… kind of weird. How does a girl that age not know how to swim? And isn't this safe environment the best place to learn? Amane's reasoning seemed a little shaky."

"Maybe she's just shy." Tsubomi wondered if Yaya could see right through her. "You know. Um. Bodily problems."

"Still…" Yaya sighed. "I was rather looking forward to seeing if the younger Ohtori looks any better in a swimsuit than the older one."

Tsubomi flushed, closing her book with a snap and getting to her feet. "I dunno," she said, still trying to control herself before she slipped up. "But I guess it's really none of our business. Anyway, I'm gonna-"

As she tried to leave, Yaya gripped at her wrist tightly, pulling her in close and holding her there by wrapping her free arm around the younger girl's waist. With her usual lack of respect for personal space, privacy, and acting decent, Yaya's leering visage filled up all of Tsubomi's sight.

"You know something you're not telling meeee…" Yaya said in a sing-song voice, playing with the tendrils of Tsubomi's long pink hair. She wound it up in the fist still holding the girl close to her. "C'mon, Tsu-Tsu-chan. Spill it. What do you know about the new girl?"

"Nothing," Tsubomi said, already red as a cherry and struggling feebly to get away. "Now let me go, Yaya-sempai! People might get the wrong idea!"

"Oh yes." Yaya cocked one eyebrow high. "Cause there's soooo many people watching us right now. Why're you getting all flustered, Tsubomi-chan?"

"Because you're acting indecent." Tsubomi glared at the older girl.

"And you love it. Now tell me everything or I'm going to tickle you so bad your ancestors'll feel it! Why're you siding with the new girl instead of me? You got a crush on her or something?"

"No!"

"So then tell me!" Yaya adopted a pleading tone, letting Tsubomi go to clasp her hands together as if in prayer. "Please? Pretty please?"

"Gossip-monger," Tsubomi accused, taking a few steps back.

"Gossip-whore," Yaya corrected. "I don't wage war with it, I horde it like a dragon. So come on? Who would I tell? Please? Please? Please? Puh-leeeease?"

Tsubomi simply couldn't take much more of this. "FINE! She…" Tsubomi swallowed a nervous lump. "She… has… she wears…" Leaning closer after checking to make sure no one was looking or listening in, she whispered into Yaya's ear. "She wears fake breasts."

Yaya's mouth was agape in a wide, uncharacteristically girly smile. "Omigosh, I love you now."

It was Tsubomi's turn to smile, though rather bitterly. "Didn't you always?" she asked dryly.

"Mmm, not particularly." Sashaying past Tsubomi, Yaya made to leave the library. "Now come on, if you're leaving I'm leaving too. Those two love birds aren't likely to leave the conference room anytime soon, and I'm damn tired."

"Hey!"

Tsubomi hurriedly gathered all her things, rushing to catch up with Yaya. She needn't have worried though- Yaya was waiting for her just outside the library doors, one hand on her outthrust hip and a small smile on her face. "Come on, slowpoke," she said when Tsubomi caught up.

"You're… so… mean…" Tsubomi said between breaths, lugging along all of her studying material and books. Yaya didn't reply at first, merely smirking in the semi-darkness of the setting sun. Then, as they grew closer to the dorms, she grabbed Tsubomi for the second time that night, dragging her to the side and into the privacy of the woods. All of Tsubomi's things flew out of her grasp and she opened her mouth to shout "Baka!" at Yaya but found that she couldn't breathe, let alone talk, because Yaya was making her lips comfortable on top of Tsubomi's, holding the girl tighter than she had before.

"It's only cause I love ya," Yaya said, drawing away after what felt like an eternity. She smiled at Tsubomi's dumbstruck face, running a finger gently along the girl's lips.

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A/N: And that, my friends, is why I don't support Shizuma/Tamao, but why I do support Yaya/Tsubomi!