This took a little while, sorry to anyone who was waiting!

Kiyohiko Azuma is the genius that created Azumanga Daioh.

Tomo loved "surprise sleepovers", even more so when she was rewarded with Yomi's frustrated face. Ah, but she could see it- certainly, that rage was just her friend's way of expressing her undying love and affection.

Yomi was peacefully asleep. Sometime in the a.m., Tomo had finally let her sleep, and by then, the other girl was exhausted and probably very grateful for the break. But Tomo couldn't help it if her energy bars were constantly full- for a little while after Yomi had started snoring softly, attempts were made to mess around with Yomi's dreams and make her talk in her sleep. Sadly, there was no evidence that Tomo's efforts had any effect, so she had snuggled up to the taller girl and fell asleep to the lullaby of her heartbeat.

As always, Tomo was awake first. Alarmed at first that she wasn't in her own bed, the girl was about to let out an ear-splitting scream before she realized where she was, and decided that she might not want to waste the quiet morning like that after all. Besides, Yomi looked so comfortable there, like she was having a pleasant dream. Her long hair was messy from sleep, or perhaps the forced roughhousing with Tomo. The sunlight hit the usually bespectacled girl at a perfect angle, her features softly illuminated. Tomo felt as if her heart were going to burst.

"WAKEY WAKEY MA BELLE YOMI!"

And so, off went Yomi's alarm clock, in French for a change. Yomi squinted her eyes at the other girl, who was practically jumping on the bed probably at the excitement of starting a brand new day. Lovely. She closed her eyes just as Tomo threw herself on top of her, yelling about waking up in as many other languages as she could (just in Japanese, if you don't count the made up words). Yomi groaned. "Yeah, yeah, just a minute."

The smarter girl began to put on her uniform when she realized that Tomo was staring. First argument of the day. With only one button on her pajamas undone, she turned to her friend, who didn't seem to have a pinch of shame in her body. "What?" Yomi sighed deeply. Here we go. "You know exactly what. Don't watch me." Tomo rolled on the bed, laughing at her self-consciousness, causing Yomi to roll her eyes.

"How would you like it if I watched you while you changed?" Tomo jumped to her feet, unfazed by the question. "Dunno, let's find out," she said, beginning to undo her clothes. "I put my uniform over here, right?" Yomi was putting a lot of effort into not mentioning the surprise sleepovers- discussing something like that with Tomo could only lead to disaster. "Rhetorical question Tomo. I don't actually want you to strip, if you haven't noticed." Her friend smiled brightly. "Sure ya do!"

This was going to be a long day.

Yukari was amazed by the sight of Nyamo at her door, picking her up as usual despite the other night. Her eyes still half-closed from sleep, she blinked twice and stumbled out. "Yo." Minamo raised an eyebrow at Yukari's unkempt hair and attitude problem- not that it wasn't unusual, and as soon as the gym teacher opened her mouth, Yukari knew she was in for an earful. Luckily, Yukari managed to drown out her speech by thinking of other things- like Nyamo, interestingly enough.

Nyamo paused, possibly to see if her friend was listening. Yukari looked at her with one eye and then said, half-bitterly, "You know, if you'd be nice to people instead of nag them, men might like you better." The English teacher ignored the next speech, knowing that what she was was completely worth it. At school, Nyamo stomped off as quickly as she could, but she would get no apology from Yukari, who went up to her classroom just as fast.

Enter Tomo Takino and Koyomi Mizuhara, the best of friends, though one refused to admit it. Now who do these two remind you of? Yukari had a sneaking suspicion that their relationship was similar to hers and Nyamo's- possibly better, and growing stronger. Yukari watched the pair- her narrowed eyes on Yomi, in particular.

Putting appearance and age aside, she was exactly like Minamo Kurosawa. That snarky attitude, the way she looked at her friend, her holier-than-thou way of talking, all the way down to her natural beauty. Look at that- she didn't even notice Yukari watching her, just like Nyamo never noticed stares from those damned perverts at the bar. The more she thought about it, the more the teacher's resentment towards the innocent students grew. Irritably, she gripped her desk, hating it, hating that there was virtually no difference between them, except that she couldn't-

"Miss Yukari?"

Chiyo, the teacher realized, must have been calling her a couple of times. And also, by the look on the girl's face, Yukari didn't look very friendly at the moment. She looked as if she was ready to run behind Sakaki, who had just entered the room. "Huh," she grunted, turning her attention the terrified child. "What is it?"

"Are... are you okay?"

An idea had been planted in Yukari's head.

"I'm fine, Chiyosuke."